Another World For Beautiful
by thecautionarytale
Summary: Cato and Clove have been together for a year, quite an accomplishment for a Career. Especially a District 2 Career. Emotion was one thing they weren't supposed to feel, and love was the biggest obstacle of all. So when they are thrown into the games, their love will be put to the test, and they find that they can't always save each other. Lemons and language
1. When The Day Met The Night

**My first fanfic, hope you enjoy, please review! It's a slow start, I know. Most peeple start reading and hope to begin with a lemon. i think that is just impersonal, you should get to know the characters before they get all lovey dovey. But we do have some passionate kissing. PLEASE REVIEW!**

Chapter 1

When The Day Met The Night

_"When the moon found the sun, He looked like he was barely hanging on, but her eyes saved his life"- Panic! At The Disco_

"Alright everybody, go to lunch, be back at 1:00" Felix, the head trainer said. "And remember..." he waited for us to finish the sentence for him.

"If you're early you're on time, if you're on time, you're late, and if you're late you're in trouble" we droned. Felix nodded in approval and left for his office. Half of the group went to eat, but I stayed behind. We had been practicing fist fighting all morning and I hadn't gotten a chance to visit my favorite station. I practically ran to the knives, eager to throw them. Picking up one, I admired its balance and aerodynamics. The knife was a special weapon to me.

I put down the training knife. It was too dull, too safe. I pulled my favorite knife out of the inside of my jacket. It was 7 inches long and extremely light, not to mention sharp. I threw it at the dummy. Right in the heart, right where it was supposed to land. I never missed. Never. No matter how cocky it may seem, it was a proven fact. I watched the dummy turn into a little boy. I watched his expression as death claimed his warm eyes that turned to stone. The blood seeped out of his chest in a satisfying way. Blinking, I remembered it was just an illusion, I wouldn't be able to kill until I was 18, not to mention 2 more years.

"Why even try to practice?" a scratchy voice snickered behind me. I turned around, seeing that Cato's friend, Derrick, was up to no good.

"You're right," I looked at my shoes innocently. ", maybe I should start putting my skills to use." in one swift movement, I pushed Derrick onto the ground, laying the cold edge of the blade on his neck.

"Alright, so what, you can pin me to the ground." She smiled nervously.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I'd like to see you try and take down Cato." Derrick raised his eyebrows. I dug my knees into Derrick's shoulders to hear a satisfying crunch. "Ow!" I smiled in satisfaction. "Tell this little whore to stop!" I felt my face go hot. Only one person called me a whore, my dad, and he was abusive. I couldn't have people from the training center calling me that as well. That was my one weakness.

"Take it back" I growled, digging the blade into his neck and watching the blood roll onto the mat. Derrick gasped. My vision fogged, the way it did when I was angry. I felt my fist make contact with his face before I was pulled off him. The strong arms dropped me back to the ground.

"Clove calm the fuck down, he's just playing" Cato said. He was a very good actor when it came to hiding the relationship. See, the two strongest people in the training center couldn't date. It was a law. OK so maybe it wasn't a law, but it was dangerous and stupid, and that just added to the thrill of it.

"You're gonna pay!" Derrick tried to lunge at me before Cato stopped him.

"Come on dude, let's just go get lunch."

"Cato, show this prick a lesson!"

"Derrick, I'm hungry, let's just go eat" Cato pleaded.

"Getting soft aren't we?"

"Come on Cato, scared I might hurt you?" I mocked. I wouldn't let him go easy on me, I wanted to fight. Cato rolled his eyes, knowing he couldn't avoid fighting me or Derrick would be suspicious.

He lunged at me, slamming me into the ground, just enough to stun me. I smiled. I needed to get my anger out, being the sadist I am. He held my wrists, forgetting to secure my legs. I kneed him in the gut, just enough to make him get off me. He doubled over when Derrick helped him get up.

"Dude, you suck, you aren't trying at all" Derrick wasn't helping. Cato stood on the opposite side of the room, but I had the long distance advantage. I chucked a knife at him, purposefully grazing his cheek until I saw blood. He ran forward, kicked my feet out from under me and successfully knocking the wind out of me. We rolled for a couple moments until he had me in one of his infamous headlocks. He was close enough to whisper to me.

"You okay?" I smiled at the fact that he had let his guard off. I elbowed him, throwing him back. I climbed back on top of him, pinning his arms down.

"Fine, how about you?" I smirked. I pulled out another knife and held it above his throat. He tried to squirm away but I made a small cut on his collarbone. "Dead!" I declared, and Derrick's jaw was on the floor.

"Dude, you just got beaten by a girl" he pointed out.

"Derrick!" Felix yelled from his office.

"Great, time to get a big talking to from Felix." Derrick sighed.

"What'd you do?" I asked.

"Like you really care, but you know the female tribute that's supposed to volunteer with Cato this year?" I nodded "I knocked her up and now she can't go."

"Derrick!" Felix persisted.

"I'll see you later Cato."

"What a dick" I remarked.

"Yeah, I wonder who I'm going to be paired with this year" Cato mumbled. The door to Felix's office clicked behind Derrick and Cato lunged at me, but this time, I let him. He picked me up over his shoulder, carrying me out of the training room and into the hall. When he lowered me to his face, I wrapped my legs around his torso, feeling his body warmth through his shirt. He slammed me up against the wall, his lips crashing into mine.

"Greedy, aren't we" I murmured between kisses.

I slid my hand up his shirt to feel his warm back as he carried us into the bathroom.

We actually met in a bathroom.

_I would have never known that Lacey would invite me to her party. We were never close, never friends, and certainly had never talked. I suppose she felt obliged to inviting everyone from the training center to her going away party. _

_The first thing I noticed were a pile of teenagers wasted and passed out on the living room floor. The rest of the attendees of the party were gathered in the corner of the apartment. I ran over to see what was happening. _

_Lacey sat across from Kade Kovac. They were both the tributes for the Hunger Games, and considering the reaping was tomorrow, I found them very foolish. Never, in a million years would I show up to the reaping, hung-over. Lacey and Kade were determined to drink as many shots as they could while staring in each other's eyes. I watched Lacey pick the 17__th__ one u and before it reached her lips, she passed out. Kade didn't make it much farther past 17 before crashing. _

_A group of boys picked up each of them, putting them with the other wasted teenagers. "Who's next?" a girl named Sam asked. The whole group looked around timidly. Most of them had never touched alcohol, for fear their parents would find out. I didn't have parents. Well at least not parents that cared about me. I didn't have to pay attention to tomorrows reaping, so I figured, what the hell. (May I mention that I was 14 when this happened) My competition was Derrick who sucked at shots. He likes to think he's a bad ass, when in fact; he can't even make it past one shot without passing out. _

_So when Sam signaled for us to start, Derrick made it past 2 (a record for him) before crashing. I was still going strong. I think I made it to 21 or maybe it was 19 or possibly 23. I can't remember. I just remember waking up in the living room surrounded by bodies reeking of alcohol. I felt the alcohol try and resurface and I dashed to the bathroom, flinging the door open and spewing into the toilet bowl._

_"Well hi there!" A deep voice said. A muscular boy with electric blue eyes said. He was standing by the sink, washing his hands._

_"Hi" I moaned._

_"Nice job at shots, Derrick sucks at 'em" he dried his hands. I threw up again, moaning in agony. I felt like shit. I probably looked like shit, which bothered me considering I was in a bathroom with an extremely attractive guy. "My name's Cato" _

_"Clove" I replied. _

_"Well, it's nice to meet you. Maybe it would have been nicer to meet you under different circumstances, but hey, this works." He ran his large hands through his dirty blond hair. I dry heaved, much to my annoyance. And he laughed. Cato LAUGHED!_

_"Shut up"_

_"Here" he chuckled, putting a wet towel on my forehead. His large hand rubbed circles on my back, reassuringly. "You, my friend won't be able to drive home in this condition. I guess that means I'm stuck with you" I threw up again._

_"I'm fine" I groaned._

_"Yes, throwing up in a toilet bowl, you're totally fine!" He remarked. "Well I guess if you're fine, I can take this towel back." He pulled it off my forehead, and my migraine resurfaced._

_"No, please stay" I pleaded. He smiled._

_"Well if you insist" was the last thing I heard before falling asleep._

**Yay, okay so please review, tell me how I am doing and if I should continue or not. I'd love to hear from the readers. If I do continue I'll end the chapters in cliff hangers (becasue suspense is a beautiful thing) but this chapter was kind of a basic intro, hope to hear from my lovely readers**


	2. The Unexpected Visitor

**Okay, so I got 1 review… thanks Abby! But I also got 4 or 5 people following me so I'm guessing that means you guys like my work. So here's Chapter 2! Lots of flash backs, but I just wanted to give a basis of the relationship before we actually get to the action in the present.**

Chapter 2

The Unexpected Visitor

_No lyrics for this one :(_

"Clove?" Cato mumbled. I ignored him and continued to shove my mouth on his. "Clove" he repeated, sliding his hand down my arm. I trembled at this intoxicating touch.

"What?" I asked, sliding his shirt off. A deep grumble escaped his lips as I traced the scar between his shoulder blades.

"What time is it?" I unwillingly pulled away to check my watch. Shit. 1:30.

"Cato, we have to go, it's 1:30!" I scrambled to stand up. Cato snapped awake, hastily pulling his shirt back on. I remember the first time I saw Cato shirtless. The day after we had met.

_I woke up in an unfamiliar bed, my headache pounding. I did NOT feel good. Where the fuck am I? I thought. I looked at the strange black comforter that wrapped around my body. That's when I saw Cato, sitting in the corner of this room, shirtless. The image made my heart pound, not to mention my head as well. _

_"Good morning" he mumbled, standing up. Then I saw intricate little crescent shaped marks all over his back. I recognized them immediately, they were my nails. I gasped in shock. "What?" I had obviously startled him. He saw my eyes trailing to his back. _

_"Oh, that. You know, you are very persistent when you don't get what you want." He smirked. I continued to look confused. "You don't remember?" _

_"No"_

_"Well I brought you here. I practically had to carry you, you were so unbalanced. I put you down on my bed and you tore off my shirt." I was startled by what he was telling me. Me? I would never do something like that. But apparently, I had._

_"Did I," I began. ", did we?" I choked. _

_"No, but you wanted to. You were kicking and screaming, practically begging me but I wasn't going to take advantage of you. When I said no, well, you kind of fucked up my back" _

_"I'm soo sorry" I tried to apologize._

_"Don't worry about it."_

_"Cato, I really am sorry"_

_"It's okay, I like it when they beg" _

I ran down the hall and burst through the doors to see everyone gone. The only person in the training room was Felix. Shit. Cato came stumbling in, not far behind me.

"Hmm… I remember specifically saying if anyone was late, they'd be in serious trouble." Felix looked between Cato and I, suspicion lurking.

"Where's everyone else?" Cato asked.

"I gave them the day off."

"Felix, I'm so sorry, we… I was just going home for lunch and I lost track of time." I tried to explain. He nodded, half heartedly.

"And you?" he glared at Cato.

"I… I went to go visit my girlfriend." He replied. I tensed.

"Who might that be?"

"Um…. Sam… Sam Cavalry" I knew he was lying, but the thought of him with Sam made me angry. My hands balled into fists.

"I was un aware of this" Felix said. "But it doesn't matter because you were both late. I'm most surprised to see this from you, Cato. I shouldn't even let you volunteer for the reaping."

"Felix, you can't do that!" Cato started to defend himself, but Felix waved his hand dismissively.

"But since we don't have anyone else, I have no other choice. You're lucky I admire both of you. I'll let you get away this time, but if it happens again, I will punish you." Felix said with a warning tone. We both nodded in agreement. Felix walked back to his office as Cato and I walked silently outside. When the sun hit our faces, he broke the silence.

"That was close"

"Yeah, No shit" he laughed.

"Are you mad?" he ran his fingers through his hair.

"No" I lied.

"Liar" he stopped us in the middle of the street. "Tell me, what's wrong."

"I just don't like the idea of you dating Sam, that's all" he laughed.

"Jealousy, much?" he teased. I don't know when he actually started caring about my anger… actually; I guess it was a couple months ago.

_"Cato?" I asked, opening the door to his apartment. No reply. "Cato, this isn't fucking hide and seek!" I yelled. And then I saw him, sprawled on the ground, drunk. "Cato? What the hell?" _

_"What are you doing here?" he asked._

_"I just wanted to see how you were doing… obviously not very well" _

_"I'm sick Clove, not dead, I can take care of myself." He slurred._

_"I believe you, but you're drinking alcohol like it's Nyquil, calm down" I kicked one of the many empty bottles that surrounded him. _

_"Don't tell me when I've had enough!" he stood up shakily._

_"Cato, what the hell is wrong with you. You know you're not supposed to be drinking alcohol; you've got to train for the Games. They're only in a couple months. You need to be focused."_

_"You know what a little bird told me?" he plopped back down on the couch."He told me that you were off kissing Danny Schwartz." I was taken aback._

_"Who the hell told you that?" I asked._

_"Derrick"_

_"Cato, he's a liar. That never happened. Danny was just flirting me but I told him to back off. It's not true." He stood up once again, searching my eyes for any sign that I may be lying. He was never a very good lie detector when he wasn't sober._

_"Liar" he slapped me across the face. I clutched my face, rage building up in me._

_"You asshole! I'm telling to truth" I pushed him back onto the ground before running out of his apartment. He never hit me. Never. So why did he have to start now?_

_I started my car and began barreling down the road. The persistent rain clouded my vision so that I could barely see the road, but I didn't mind. I didn't mind up until the moment I ran off the road. _

_Shit. Shit. Shit. Was all I thought as I slid down the muddy side of the road, headed straight for a couple trees. I never remembered what happened after that. _

_I awoke on a hospital bed, Cato hovering over me. He grinned when I woke up, a small tear accumulating in his eye. He kissed me on the forehead. "I'm soo sorry Clove"_

"You staying here tonight?" He asked as I set down my jacket on his kitchen counter.

"Unless you don't want me too" I picked my jacket back up, teasingly. He smiled and made me put my jacket back on the counter.

"So what's for dinner?" he asked.

"Whatever you're making" I smirked.

"How about cereal?"

"I don't know, I've kind of got a sweet tooth right now" I came up behind him and wrapped my arms around his front. He turned around in my arms.

"Me too" he purred, picking me up in his strong arms. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he pushed me up against the wall, his body crashing onto mine. His lips crashed into mine as his tongue slid into my mouth. He explored every empty space of my mouth as he carried us to his bedroom.

He came crashing down on top of me on the bed, causing it to creak. I smiled. His had slid up my shirt, signaling for me to take it off. I slid it over my head and tossed it onto the floor. I pulled a knife out of my shoe, cutting his shirt open so I wouldn't have to stop kissing him. We went back and forth for a while until we were completely naked, not to mention soaked in sweat. My knife clattered to the floor. Cato went into me, carefully and slowly, as if not to hurt me. I rushed it my meeting his hips with mine. I groaned in satisfaction.

When we finally finished, we lay there, intertwined in each other's arms, savoring the moment. He picked up the shirt he had been wearing before that was now cut open in the back. He frowned.

"What's wrong?"

"I liked that shirt" he said. I laughed. I heard the front door creaking open. Shit. Shit. Shit. Cato looked at me with wide eyes, mirroring my thoughts. And then Felix walked in.

**Yay! Cliffhangers are always fun… sorry if you think they're cruel… I just love em. Okay so tell me what you think, constructive criticism is allowed. I really want to hear your thoughts. Should I keep going?**


	3. A Surprise, A Promise, A Death Scentence

**Ok so I guess the first chapter 3 I wrote was just bad because I was lazy. But then I was on tumblr and saw everything CLATO and got inspired to rewrite this chapter, so here goes. Please review. Keep going?**

Chapter 3

A surprise, A promise, A death scentence

I dove under the covers before Felix could see me. I tried to lay as flat and as quietly as I could.

"Hi Felix" Cato tried to hide the surprise in his voice.

"Cato, isn't it a bit early to be in bed?"

"I was just getting rested up for tomorrow. I figure I won't get much sleep on the train."

"Good thinking. I was actually coming to talk to you about the reaping tomorrow. Since Khali can't volunteer this year cause of Derrick, we had to look into other tributes. We finally decided since we can't find another eighteen year old that's good enough to go, we figure we just won't have a volunteer." I knew this would anger Cato. He didn't want his tribute partner to be someone who would be useless in the Career alliance.

"You can't find anyone?"

"Not unless you want to go with Susan" I almost laughed at the thought of Susan killing someone. Being a vegetarian, I wasn't even sure why she came to the training center if she knew she could never kill anyone.

"I'm good." Cato quickly replied.

"Good, I'll see you at the reaping then." I heard Felix begin to leave. I almost screamed when he patted my foot that was barely dangling off the side of the bed. "Hey Sam" Felix said, before leaving. He must've thought I was Sam. I sighed in relief.

"That was close" I climbed out from under the covers. "You might want to try locking your door every once in a while." Cato laughed before scooping me up in his arms. My hot breath hit his chest and bounced off it, hitting me in the face. He stroked my hair affectionately, but it was silent. Too silent. "Cato?" I asked.

"Mmmm" he mumbled.

"What are you thinking?" I asked. I heard his lips part into a smile.

"I'll never tell"

"Stay with me, Cato. Please."

"Always." He let his lips brush past my forehead and down to my ear. "I love you"

"I love you too" I smiled to myself. Nothing could ruin this moment, or so I thought, until I thought about tomorrow.

"Cato. Please don't go to the games. Stay with me. Forever" I pleaded. His arms went rigid.

"I don't want to talk about it" His arms dropped so that I was no longer wrapped in them.

"Why not?" I looked up to see his pained face.

"Well it's not like I can really just not volunteer. There's no telling what kind of trouble I'd be in. I'm being forced, Clove. There's no way around it." I frowned at the thought of weeks on end. I remembered the last time Cato left me for a long period of time.

_"He's not coming back you know. He doesn't care about you. I don't know who would. You're just trash" my father's drunken slurs filled the house._

_"Liar" I said angrily. He just wanted me to lose my temper. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction._

_"It won't be the first time some left and didn't come back. I can't exactly blame your mother. She killed herself because she couldn't handle you're smart ass. Well you're lucky I have killed you yet. I'm not sure why I even keep you around. You're just trouble." He picked up a knife from the counter. I didn't flinch when the knife flew feet away from my face. "So when your little lover boy doesn't come back for you, don't come crying to me."_

_"Stop talking about him like that" I said through clenched teeth._

_"What are you going to do? Kill me?" he threatened. I might have, if not for the continuous injuries he had inflicted on me. It had been 8 days. 8 days since Cato left. 8 days of my father's abuse. By now I could barely move."Well I don't think you well. Cause you actually have a heart. That's why you suck at being a career." I had had enough. I pulled the knife out of the wall and chucked it at his arm, lodging itself perfectly into his flesh. He passed out as soon as the knife his him, and I stepped over his slumbering body and outside, only to run into Cato._

"5, 4, 3…" Cato's alarm clock imitated the Hunger Games countdown. It was the morning, and the fact that his alarm clock reminded me of the one thing that was going to separate us made it easier than ever to break his alarm clock. I picked it up and chucked it against the wall, satisfied when it stopped making sounds and sat in a million little pieces.

"Good morning" I said when I noticed Cato stirring. He opened his eyes slightly to see what I had been doing. He smiled.

"I never really liked that alarm clock anyway" and he pulled me on top of him. "Sleep good?" he asked.

"More or less" I cooed. I wanted to stay in bed with Cato all day… until my stomach told me it was time to get up. My stomach groaned from its lack of dinner last night. Cato gave a heavy sigh.

"Guess that means we have to get up." I was about to say no before my hunger really hit me.

"Yeah" fuck you stomach.

"Here" he pulled out a t-shirt and boxers from his bedside table. I slipped them on and continued to the kitchen. I helped myself to eggs, toast, and cereal. "Hungry?" he asked when he walked in, a towel wrapped around his waist from his shower.

"Just a bit" I said, slathering jelly onto my toast.

"Leave any for me?" he asked before settling on a couple eggs I had left un touched. "You're cute when you're hungry"

"How so?" I questioned, hugging him tightly.

"You stomach makes those noises and you get all embarrassed." He rested his head on top of mine. We sat like that for a minute before Cato reminded me.

"Clove, you should probably get a shower" I reluctantly pulled away.

"What are you implying?" I joked.

"Just thought you'd want to get one for the reaping. You're fine like you are, I just figured you wanted to take a shower" He quickly corrected himself. I kissed him quickly before continuing to get ready.

"What am I going to wear?" I shuffled through my drawer frustratingly.

"Clove" he said. I turned around and saw him pull out a familiar dress from his closet. My homecoming dress. The one I had left here almost a year ago.

"You still have that thing?" I took it from him as he chuckled.

I looked at myself closely in the mirror. I was 5' 4", definitely short for a 15 yr old. I had freckles sprayed all over my face and my skin was fair, not to mention my dazzlingly bright green eyes. I wore a simple black velvet dress and my hair was pulled up in a bun.

"Here" Cato came up behind me, taking my hair down and draping it over my shoulders. "I like it better when it's down" Cato was the exact opposite. 6' 2" and 17 (yes he was old for me, but that didn't matter). He was tan and muscular all over. His blue eyes were ones I had seen filled with hatred, and filled with love. Cato wore black pants and a white shirt. "Ready?" he asked me. I turned around and kissed him softly.

"Not really"

"Come on Clove, we have to go" He took my hand and led me out of the apartment building.

It was a short walk to the square. Too short of a walk for my liking, so before we went to check in, I pulled Cato into an alley way. I dug my hands in his dirty blonde hair, ruffling it up as he pressed his face onto mine.

"Everyone get checked in, we'll start in a moment" I heard the sound of our escort's voice booming from the square. This time, Cato pulled away.

"Clove, I love you. Wait for me to come home and I will never leave you again. We'll live in the victor's village and we'll get married and have kids."

"Cato, you said you never wanted kids" I looked at him questioningly.

"I just want you to be happy, and if kids will make you happy, I want to have kids" he said. The thought reverberated in my mind for a moment. Kids? I would be an awful mother! Cato wouldn't be the best dad either… he was rather rough. We couldn't have kids. That was never going to happen. I thought, yet still the word 'kids' bounced around in my mind.

"I love you" I kissed him one last time and went to get checked in.

….

I couldn't help but catch a couple last glances at Cato. I wouldn't see him for a while and that meant I would have to suffer the wrath of my father until Cato got back. I was not excited for Cato to leave.

We made it through the regular District 13 speech and then came the time for names to be pulled. "Aren't we excited!?" our escort, Herb Monasterio asked. As usual, District 2 responded with a blood thirsty roar. "Well, let's begin!" her hand thrust into the glass bowl for the females. She picked up a slip and was about to pull it out of the bowl before a peacekeeper jumped up on stage. He whispered in Herb's ear and Herb dropped the slip back in the bowl. "We're gonna change it up this year, and start with the males!" Before she could even pick a name, Cato yelled out.

"I volunteer!" He yelled but I heard the shaking in his voice. It was like a stab to the heart to hear him volunteer, but I knew I couldn't stop him.

"Splendid, come on up here, what's your name?" Herb flashed a smile of blue teeth at him. I saw Cato look at me one last time before replying.

"Cato, Cato Bridges." Cato went to stand on one side of the stage before the next name was called.

Herb's hand, yet again, dove into the bowl of females and pulled out a slip. She un folded it slowly, for dramatic effect, before reading it aloud. "Clove Eddings!" she yelled. I couldn't breathe.

**THE NEW AND IMPROVED CHAPTER 3! Did you like it? Favorite part? Please review. I get all my information from the hunger games wiki. I do not own the hunger Games. Please review and tell me if I should continue**


	4. Breaking Hearts, Breaking Bottles

**Sorry I haven't posted a chapter in a while! My sister was turning 16 and I had to plan her party for her, but now that that's over (thank god) I can continue! Sorry about the wait!**

Chapter 4

Breaking Hearts, Breaking Bottles

For a moment, I contemplated running. I was about to turn and bolt when a thick hand wrapped itself around my arm and shoved me towards the stage. _Dammit _I thought. It was my dad's hand, the head peacekeeper. There was no escaping his meaty hands, so I was practically forced onto the stage. Herb's capitol smile only made me want to bolt more.

On the other hand, there was Cato. He stood, poised as ever. He was calm, that is, his body language was calm. I could see the panic in his icy eyes. When I got onto the stage, I was forced to shake Cato's hand. He gave my hand a not-so-reassuring squeeze and smiled his signature smirk. I tried to return the look, but found my face still stuck in its stage of horror.

I tried to speak to Cato before being ushered into the justice building, to no avail. There, I was shut into a small room, only furnished with a couch. My first visitor was Sam Cavalry. She looked wrecked. Her face was streaked with tears and her hair was mangled. She stepped in halfway.

"Clove, I'm soo sorry! I knew about you and Cato all along so I was going to volunteer for you when-" She finally came all the way into the room, with Felix behind her.

"Felix?" I asked, baffled.

"I knew about you two all along and when you two were late for practice, I knew something was up. I wasn't about to let it go unpunished."

I was speechless for a moment until I found the words to say. "Are you admitting that you rigged the reaping?" Felix just smiled.

"Have fun in the games. I'll make sure you and Cato are the last ones, so I can enjoy you two tearing each other apart." Felix shoved Sam forward and exited out of the room.

"Clove, I'm so sorry but he made me! I was getting ready to volunteer and Felix punched me in the gut and I couldn't speak! It wasn't supposed to be like this Clove! I was supposed to go in the games!" Sam crumpled to her knees as she cried. _What am I supposed to do? _I wondered. I had never been one to comfort others. And normally when I tried, I would say something and get a whole lecture about how insensitive I was. I knelt down beside Sam and rubbed circles on her back, like I had seen in movies.

"It's okay Sam. You couldn't help this" I whispered. And then I wondered, _was _it going to be okay. Would I be able to win the games and keep Cato? It was an impossible hope, but I tucked the thought into the back of my mind. Who knew, maybe I would need that little impossible spark of hope.

"Clove, I'm sorry we never had the time to become friends" Sam sobbed.

"It's okay Sam, I'll come back. We'll both come back." But I knew it wasn't going to be true. Felix was right, only one of us would come out, and chances are it wasn't going to be me.

"Times up" my father said in his peacekeeper voice. Sam practically crawled out of the room, choking on her own sobs. "Well hello there, worthless trash" my father spats at me.

"Well since I'm half you and I'm worthless trash, what does that make you?" I snapped back at him. He laughed, catching me off guard.

"Good one" I was taken aback by his kindness (not exactly kindness… more like his lack of abusiveness). "Well who knew my daughter would go into the hunger games?" He looked me up and down. When the door clicked shut, he lunged at me and held me by my neck up against the wall. "Don't you even think about coming back, I'm not going to take care of your sorry ass anymore. You go out there and die a noble death, but do not come back to this district."

I heard the door open behind him and he dropped me to the ground. In walked another peacekeeper. "Come on Trey, her hours up, she's got to get on the train" my dad's friend said. My dad spat on me one last time before walking out of the room.

I pulled myself together for my walk of shame through the field of cameras. All I could think about was Sam. _Could we have been friends if things had worked out differently? Did she already see me as a friend? Why would she volunteer for me? How did she know about Cato and me? Why would she try and save my life? _Questions pounded in my head and the flashing lights didn't help. I practically ran to the safety of the train.

A peacekeeper slammed the door shut behind me and I was overtaken by the feeling of claustrophobia. That is, up until I saw Cato. He didn't see me at first, but he sat lounged across a chair, his feet hanging off the arm of it. He played with the fabric of his shirt subconsciously, all with a frowning expression on his face.

"There you are!" Herb said, snapping Cato out of his trance. When he looked up at me, his eyes were pooling in tears and a lump accumulated in my throat. I felt eyes boring into my skull, but they weren't Cato's. I found the culprit. Enobaria. My mentor, who stood up to look me over. She studied me from every single angle. "Too small" She scoffed.

"She's all you've got Enobaria, you don't get a replacement every time you don't like your tribute"

"You're just saying that because you have Cato, he's the perfect tribute"

"You think I want him? He's my nephew for crying out loud. I see enough of him already!" Brutus jabbed a thumb in Cato's direction.

"Why don't you come here and sit!" Herb chirped, changing the subject. She patted the cushion next to her on the couch. I opted for the floor instead which made Enobaria laugh.

"We all know District 2 is going to be the leaders of the career pack this year, but the Capitol is tired of the same old tributes. They want a more interesting story." Brutus began.

"You're point is?" Cato rushed his uncle's train of thought.

"My point is, we need to do something different than the same old ruthless killers. We need some tear jerker story behind one of you or maybe a story about abusive parents or maybe-" Brutus looked between Cato and I. He noticed Cato's longing glances that kept getting shot my way. Brutus raised an eyebrow. "-a love story."

Herb, unknowing of what Brutus had just implied, clapped her hands approvingly. "Oh! I like that one!"

"A love story indeed" Enobaria flashed a toothy smile. Cato's eyes widened when he noticed what had just happened.

"No, no, no! We're the strong careers from 2, we don't fall in love. If we show that we're weak, we loose-" Cato shouted.

"Do you really think it would get us sponsors?" I asked.

"Think back to the 70th Hunger Games. Remember Lacey Douglas and Clayton Stiller? Now that was a love story. Now, they were from 4, so they weren't supposed to be as ruthless as you are. But imagine you and Cato the star-crossed lovers of the 74th Hunger Games. Everyone's a sucker for a love story"

"Especially a believable one." Brutus elbowed Cato. "Doesn't seem like that'll be too hard for you, son" I felt my face go hot.

"Awww, she's blushing!" Herb squealed. I rolled my eyes.

"So then, the star-crossed lovers from district 2 it is!" Enobaria stepped out to call the Capitol, quickly followed by Brutus.

"Are you guys like, together?" Herb whispered.

"Get out of here!" I raised my voice, which made her jump out of her seat and run to her compartment. Cato slid onto the floor and sat next to me, eyes glazed over as he concentrated on a spot on the carpet.

"Cato?" I asked.

"Clove, what are we going to do?" I climbed into his lap and he rested his lips on my head.

"We're going to enjoy the time we have together. We'll work from there." I said, lifting my face and brushing my lips on his. I felt one of his tears hit my face and roll down my cheek, bringing my own hot tears out of my eyes.

I had only cried two other times in my life, when I was born, and when I watched the 63rd Hunger Games, when I was 4.

_"Daddy?" I croaked. My dad looked up from the couch to see me standing there, holding my blanket. _

_"Hey Clover, how are you feeling?" he asked. I walked over and he felt my forehead. "You're still hot and you look a bit flushed. Here" he handed me a cup of water. _

_"What are you watching?" I questioned, looking up at the TV. _

_"Your mom" I finally recognized my mother's weathered face. The face of the 63__rd__ Hunger Games. _

_(I guess I should explain some. See, my parents had me when they were 14. Yes, I know, extremely young, but not uncommon for District 2. My mom, even though she had a kid and husband at 18, still volunteered for the Hunger Games. Hence, my father and I watching the Games that night.) _

_"Can I watch?" My father nodded and I crawled up into his lap._

_I watched as my mother sat around a campfire with her fellow careers. "I think I'll go take a bath" she said. The other careers didn't seem to care when my mom stood up to leave, as they were joking around about their latest kill. My mom walked down to the lake and undressed, leaving on her undergarments, very well aware that she was still on live television. _

_She waded out into the lake and submerged. I admired how serene and peaceful she looked when she swam. She was even smiling, something you didn't see out of many careers if they weren't killing. And that's when it happened. It was too dark to know what was happening at first, but there was a splash, and a hollow thud. I saw the big boy from 11 hit my mom in the head with a log. My mom couldn't scream in time, she was already unconscious. _

_"Mommy!" I screamed, but knew I couldn't save her. No one could save her. As if to cause me more psychological damage, the boy from 11 pushed her under the water, drowning her. The sound of the canon echoed in my head. I felt my dad's body grow rigid and he practically threw me off his lap. He bit his lip, drawing blood as angry tears escaped his eyes. _

_"Daddy?" I said, but he didn't hear me. All he could hear was his wife's canon ringing in the house. He picked up a bottle and threw it against the wall I was sitting by. The glass rained onto me and specks of glass were stuck in my skin everywhere. I felt the hot tears flow from my eyes as my dad continued throwing a tantrum, with nothing but a little 4 year old to take out his anger on._

**Hope you liked it. Needed to give a reason why her dad is so abusive. Did you like it? Anything I could of done better? Please review! (Oh, and what did you think about Herb's comic relief?)**


	5. Pale Darkness

**Sorry I haven't written in a while! I've been super busy and it might be a while before I post the next chapter because school starts on Wednesday (sad face) but for now, here's chapter 5!**

Chapter 5

Pale Darkness

"Good, now do it again" Enobaria prompted. I sighed.

"We've been at it for hours, can't we just stop?" I whined.

"You've got one more knife to throw Clove, just humor me" I pouted, but picked up the last knife. I threw it so hard that it lodged itself in the table so that it would be impossible to pull back out. We had propped the table up against the wall of the train for the time being.

"Happy?" I snapped and Enobaria just chuckled. I stomped off into the next room over.

Cato and Brutus were in the middle of practicing hand to hand combat. By now, Cato had pinned his uncle onto the ground. See, Cato had never liked his uncle much (I never found out why), so when he got the chance to throw a few punches at Brutus, Cato was thrilled. I smiled to myself and leaned against the doorway as Cato pulled his fist back and readied himself to punch Brutus in the face. Before Cato could ruin Brutus's facial features, I broke in.

"Mind if I give it a shot?" this distracted Cato just enough so that Brutus could push Cato off of him. Brutus got up gruffly and wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.

"Good luck with that, sweetie, he'll crush you" Brutus smiled, sounding all too much like Derrick. I took that as an opportunity to leap onto Brutus and throw him onto the ground. I held his arms down using my knees and he squirmed, obviously annoyed that a girl soo small could take him down. He gathered a last bit of energy and heaved his head back. I didn't process what he was doing until it happened. He thrust his head forward and met my skull, most likely chipping it in the process. But at the moment, I didn't feel the pain. He rolled us over so that he was on top and smiled. "Feeling helpless?"

I smirked and found a way to turn us over. I pulled my knees up and kneed him in the gut, grabbing his arm in the process, and twisting it behind his back as I turned us over. He lay on his stomach, with me rendering his right arm helpless behind his back. Cato laughed and bent down so he could whisper in Brutus's ear. "What can I say, she likes to be on top" and with that I let go of him. Brutus stood up, trying to hide how bruised his ego was.

"Not bad." He nodded approvingly. "We've got a couple of winners this year." He smiled to himself. "Well it's two a.m. I suppose I have to let you get _some _sleep. We get to the Capitol at 10, so don't stay up too late" he winked to Cato which only made me roll my eyes. Brutus closed the door behind him quietly.

"Here, let me patch that up" he motioned to me bleeding forehead. He walked into the bathroom and came out and rolled a roll of toilet paper around my head, obviously just trying to make himself laugh.

I tore off the headdress and mumbled, "Thanks for trying" I lay down on Cato's bed and sighed.

"What's wrong?" he asked, hovering over me.

"I shrugged. "I'm just not feeling so great" as soon as I finished speaking, Cato forced his lips down onto mine. My lips crushed against his so hard I felt them ache. He pushed me down on the bed as his lips traveled down my neck.

"Cato" I mumbled. He moaned in reply. I turned so my back faced him.

"What's wrong, Clover?"

"I'm just tired. Not really in the mood right now." He nodded and took off his shirt and pants, sliding into bed beside me. I tucked my neck beneath his head and fell asleep.

The ground shuddered beneath me before dropping out from below me. I had this awful sensation of falling that made my stomach turn. I jumped out of Cato's grasp and ran into the bathroom.

"Clove?" Cato groggily called for me. I tried to reply, but as soon as I opened my mouth, my stomach turned again.

"Fuck" I mumbled.

"Clove? Are you okay?" I heard Cato shuffle out of bed and to the doorway.

"I'm fine. I probably just ate too much at dinner." He knelt beside me and rubbed my back, smiling to himself. "Do you find this amusing?" I asked angrily.

"No, it's just. We've been in this position before. You throwing up your guts at the toilet, and me. The boy who always keeps you company" he was referring to the night we met.

"I think I'm okay now" I sat back from the toilet. I didn't bother standing up, for fear the floor would drop out from beneath me again. I just sat, cradled in Cato's arms. We stayed that way for a while until the alarm clock blared from in the other room.

"Time to get up" Cato sighed. He carried me into my own room and set me down. "I'll see you soon" he kissed my forehead gently.

I dressed as slowly as possible, not wanting to face the Capitol. I pulled on a long yellow dress and braided my hair to the side. It was the only thing I could find that didn't have remnance of the Capitol's poor choice of style on it. I walked out of my compartment and to the train door. I looked at Cato, standing tall beside me, not wanting to look down at me. I stretched up onto my tip toes and kissed him one last time before being engulfed by the cameras of the Capitol.

Between all the reporters yelling over each other, the shoving, and flashing cameras, I can't remember when I lost Cato and my mentors. We had been holding hands the whole time, but I found myself dethatched from his side. Reporters lunged at me, almost threateningly. It took all of my being not to lunge back at them.

By some miracle, I found my way through the doors of the training center. I got on the elevator by myself and the doors began to close. I thought I was safe from all company and could finally be alone when a pale hand stopped the doors. They slid back open to reveal President Snow himself. He stepped onto the elevator and stood beside me.

"Hello, Clove" he purred.

"Hello Mr. President" I replied shakily. _Why would Snow be here. In this elevator. With me. _The elevator began to go up and before we reached my floor, Snow touched the control panel and the whole elevator went black. Panic caught in my throat.

**Get-cho mind outa the gutter! No, snow is not going to rape clove… I figured most you guys would be like -_- really Snow? Wtf? But no, he will not because that is a) gross and b) just…. Just wrong. So howd-ya like da chapta?**


	6. Doubts

**Ok.. So, my last attempt at Chapter 6 was a FAYUL and its been bothering me all day. SOOO I figure… I reeeeally need to rewrite this chapter. So, chatper 6, trial 3. Lots of it will be the same, but ill add some mostly important stuff. Don't be all like oh yeah its probs not important but IT ISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS so read! pwees**

Chapter 6

Doubts

"I'm glad you understand Clove" Snow said in his annoying, raspy voice. I nodded, swallowing the panic that was still caught in my throat as the lights in the elevator returned. I stepped onto the second floor and Snow gave me a not-so-reassuring smile. I took a couple staggering steps onto the floor before being jumped on (in a theoretical sense of the word) by Enobaria.

"Clove? Where the hell did you go? You can't just run off like that! Who the hell were you talking to? Why the hell do you look so pale? Get yourself together girl!" Enobaria barked. I just gave a heavy sigh.

"Clove?" Cato came from around the corner. "Are you alright?" he furrowed his brow. I shook my head in response and let a single tear fall. Cato, obviously taken by surprise by my crying, which I had done a lot of lately. He rushed forward and held me close. This only gave me the urge to cry more.

_The elevator halted abruptly, almost knocking me off my feet. The lights hummed and sputtered out and the only light in the elevator was the faint glow of the buttons. _

_"Now Clove," Snow said sternly. I looked where he had been standing, but all I saw was blackness. "We understand how much your anticipating these games" his voice dripped with sarcasm. "But we have a couple issues with your boyfriend." I could hear him shift his weight. "See, there's a girl from District 1. Glimmer. Who would look so much better with him. So we've decided to cancel your 'the star crossed lovers from district 2' and try something different." I heard the faint shuffling of his footsteps and he placed something into my hand. He leaned in close and his cold breath rebounded off my ear as he whispered. He made sure to savor every word. "You may find you asking yourself if he loves you" his lips parted into a smile. "He doesn't" _

_The elevator hummed to life._

"Do you want to talk about it?" Cato asked.

"No" I wiggled out of his grasp. "I- I just need some time alone." I practically ran to my room.

The room was unlike any other, but at that moment, I didn't take the time to observe my new living quarters. Instead, I flung myself onto the bed and crawled under the covers, intent on suffocating myself. I pulled my hand forward and saw what Snow had placed in it.

It was in pristine shape for something that I had been clutching ever so tightly. In fact, my hands were closed so tightly around it; the thorns had started to draw blood from my palm. It was a rose. A white rose to be exact.

I had seen them do it in movies, and always imagined it as juvenile. Just for hopeless romantic that were hoping for a miracle. But at that moment, I definitely felt like I needed a miracle. I picked off petal after petal.

"He loves me, he loves me not" why did I even believe anything Snow had told me? I wasn't sure, but his argument I found extremely convincing. Cato deserved someone other than me. He deserved someone prettier than I. Then I came to the last petal.

"He loves me not" I mumbled, not yet pulling the petal off the flower. What an unlucky number of petals! What were the odds of that? Why should I believe a fucking flower? I crawled out from under the sheets and stared intently at the flower.

I ran to the bathroom and filled a glass with some water and placed the flower in it. If I gave the flower water, it had to grow another petal. I would wait until then, and then my flower would speak the truth. But at that moment, I wasn't sure what was true.

"Clove?" a gruff voice called. I heard the door creak open and saw Brutus standing in the doorway; the last person I had expected.

"What?"

"Well, we all figured someone needed to talk to you. Enobaria didn't feel like dealing with you, Herb is too scared to talk to most of our tributes, and Cato locked himself into his room. So, naturally, I was the candidate for the job." He thought for a minute. "So I guess these kinds of conversations start something like… are you alright?" He was absolutely serious.

"I'm fine" Brutus gave a heavy sigh.

"Good. Well, your prep team is waiting for you whenever you're ready. All of the Career districts have a conference with the press so they can ask questions." Brutus had truly tried at this whole 'parenting' thing. And I admired him for that. I set my rose on the bedside table and Brutus lead me to the elevator.

"Um, I think I'll take the stairs" I mumbled, headed towards the dark stairwell. The blackness reminded me a lot of the elevator, but there was no way I was getting into that elevator. I was going to have to get down somehow. I was about to call for Cato, to have him keep me company before I remembered what Snow had said. I had to start doing things for myself, Cato and I could no longer be a public couple. It was just like being back in district 2.

I reached the lobby, claustrophobia coming upon me, so naturally, I sprinted out of the stairwell. I found a peculiar group of people, obviously citizens of the Capitol. I had to guess that it was my prep team.

One of them had a pink afro of hair with hair clips sticking out at every angle. She even had a fro pick in her hair. Her skin had been dyed pink and tattooed with white poodles. It was truly horrifying.

The other two looked like twins. They both had blue hair that cascaded down their back. It was cut uneven and choppy but in a tasteful way. Their skin was green and tattooed with what looked like various quotes.

On top of all that, they were all midgets. Like 4' 5" midgets, and surprisingly enough, I was happy with my prep team. I finally towered over someone. I finally felt truly powerful.

The remake center was probably the most terrifying place I would ever see. At first, they set me down on a cold metal slab that made me cringe. They removed EVERY SINGLE piece of hair on my body in a painful process that they call waxing. After waxing, every inch of my skin had lost feeling.

No to mention being covered in some sort of green glop. "What's that?" I asked my prep team, who were surprisingly quiet for people from the Capitol.

"Doesn't have a name. It removes scars" the pink one replied plainly. I went rigid and jumped off the table.

"It what?" I said through bared teeth. No one bothered to answer me, and someone pinned me back on the table and strapped my wrists and ankles down. This, over all, infuriated me more. I was being restricted… by midgets.

Some scars I didn't mind getting rid of. Such as a couple from my dad's beatings, some from the car crash. But there were a couple that had shaped who I am.

_"Alright Clove, you ready?" My mother said in her silky voice. I nodded triumphantly. My mother gripped the handle bars of my bike and guided me down the street. "Okay, I'm going to let go!" my mom said. I was about to protest, but it was too late. My mother had let go of my bike and I was now barreling down a hill. _

The last memory of my mom before she left for the games. And now, the scars from my brutal bike crash that were the only physical memory I had of my mother, were disappearing before my eyes. I tried to scrape away to gloop, but by then the scar was gone.

Silence was the only thing keeping me company while I waited for my stylist. When she arrived, she look unusually normal. At least for a Capitol citizen.

She had brown hair pilled in a top knot on the top of her head. Her face, extremely pale but in a flawless way, was decorated with sparkling brown eyes and dark red lips. She wore a blue dress that reached her knees.

"Hello Clove" she formally shook my hand. "My name is Florencia but you can just call me Flo" she inspected where my prep team had tied me down. "Might be a good time to take these off of you" she almost laughed, and peeled the straps off my limbs. "SO, tonight you have the press conference. And…" she leaned in closer, "from what I've heard you've got someone special. And you've got some competition, so we'll make sure you look stunning" I already loved Flo. She stepped back and looked closely at me.

Flo reached for her wrist and I saw her talk to her watch. "Hey Take, can you bring me number five?" she said. I heard a delighted squeal and the door opened at almost the same instant. "This is my assistant, Take" Take was a young girl. Probably twelve.

"Nice to meet you!" she exclaimed, handing Flo a black dress bag.

"That's all" Flo waved her hand to Take dismissively. Take walked out of the room, getting in as many waves as she could before disappearing around the corner. "Ah" Flo exhaled, unzipping the dress bag. Inside sat a plain yellow dress. It was designed like a tank top, just longer. The neckline scooped to the belt, but would show anything. Beneath were a pair of blue heels that would instantly make me taller. I frowned. It couldn't possibly look good on me. That dress would swallow me up with all the draping. "Turn around" she instructed. I turned away from the mirror as the soft material met my skin. "Would you like to see?" she asked. The way she said it sounded like I could not possibly look good. I was ready for the worst as she stood me in front of the mirror.

All I could think about was how beautiful I looked. Flawless even. I would date me. I was definitely beautiful tonight. I was stunning. I was amazing. I looked breathtaking. I would look elegantly dangerous.

"Now Clove?" someone from the crowd asked. We were in the middle of the press conference, and I was already bored. They only questioned district by district (to keep the element of surprise for seeing the tributes for the first time at the parade) so it was only Cato and I sitting on stage. He reached his hand over and took mine, ever so gently. I just wanted to melt, but the cold wind of Snow's words stopped me. I pulled my hand back and placed it on my thigh. Cato frowned, but I tried my best to ignore him. "Did you know Cato before the reaping?"

I sighed, contemplating on how to answer. I could tell the truth and get eaten alive by Snow, or I could lie and just break Cato's heart. I had a choice that I had to make. And it was to be made in front of many people from the Capitol. I looked up at Cato who looked at me quizzically. Before I could stop myself, I blurted.

"Yes, we're best friends" Snow was going to kill me. But as I thought that, I saw the president himself walk in the room. He looked at me and nodded. He wanted me to tell the truth, but I would have to leave out the relationship details.

"Have you ever dated?" the same reporter asked.

"Yes" Cato said, still frowning. He left it at that, not bothering to elaborate.

"Well, I think that's all the time we have, but thank you!" Enobaria cut in. She must have heard about Snow's plan. We were ushered off the stage and back to the top floor. I tried to stay as close to Enobaria as possible, because I knew if I left her, I would have to face my worst fear. Cato.

"Leave me alone!" Enobaria yelled as I followed her around the top floor.

"But Enobaria, I don't want to go talk to Cato!" I whined.

"You're going to have to do it sometime. So get it over with!" She pushed me to his door and waited for me.

"Cato?" I knocked on his door. He answered with a low grumble as I walked in. Enobaria gave a gruff smirk and left me alone in the doorway.

"Clove?" he sat up, obviously surprised to see me."I thought you were ignoring me" He slid over so I could crawl into bed with him. I hesitated a bit, but gave in.

"I was" I admitted. He ignored the answer.

"What'd you want to talk about?"

"Glimmer and you" I sighed.

"Who the hell is Glimmer? Clove, we've been over this. I would never cheat on you"

"No Cato, it's arranged. The Capitol wants the star-crossed lovers from one and two." I breathed in his smell. "They want me out of the picture." Cato looked at me.

"Glimmer? The girl from one? You really think that I would-" he saw how serious I was. "But that's not going to happen, Clove. We're in this together" he kissed my head. I turned around and met his face, feeling his familiar hot breath on my face and his ice blue eyes on my green ones. I kissed him hard and passionately, crushing my lips on his. He was about to slip his tongue inside my mouth when I pulled back. "What's wrong?"

"Do you love me, Cato?" He held my face in his hands and looked me straight into the eye.

"I love you Clove. If I could save one person in the world from death it would be you. If I had the last slice of pizza, I'd give it to you. Clove, I definitely love you" I smiled.

"Damn" I breathed. "Now I want pizza" He smiled and pulled me on top of him. He kissed me again and slid his hand up my shirt, helping me take it off. He unclasped my bra and threw it against the wall. Clothes came off one after the other and then Cato flipped us over. "You know I like it on top." I frowned.

"Don't you remember?" he asked, sliding into me. "Today I get to chose" We swayed in rhythm for a couple minutes before Cato collapsed beside me. Sweaty and exhausted. I kissed his forehead and laid my head on his chest.

"Happy Birthday" I said to him as the clock struck 12.

**OMAGAWD IT WAS HIS BDAY. So he just barely made the cut for the games. Isnt that unfortunate! Well whoed u like the chapter!? Tell me pweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees ! I am at the beach this weekend so I will try to write but it might take a bit longer than usual! Sorrraaaaay**


	7. Revelations And Risks

**Im really sorry this took so long! I didn't have internet at the beach, had a lot of homework this week, and Friday was my birthday. SOOO today is the first time I get to write in a while. Here is the next chapter, im reeeeally sorry!**

Chapter 7

Revelations and Risks

I was running and I couldn't stop. Not now, not while he was chasing me. I turned around to catch a glimpse of the person pursuing me. It was the tall, muscular boy for 11. He ran after me, his nostrils flaring in pure fury. I picked up pace and ran as fast as I could. "Cato! Cato!" I screamed. The ground dropped out from underneath me.

I woke up in a cold sweat, Cato staring at me quizzically. "Clove?" he whispered. I was about to reply when my stomach decided to turn inside out again. I practically crawled to the bathroom and parked myself in front of the toilet again. I heard Cato practically fling the covers across the room as he dashed to the bathroom. "Clove? Are you okay?"

I was about to say yes, but obviously it wasn't the right answer. As soon as I opened my mouth, my dinner made a reappearance. When I recovered, I sat up and sighed. I had to face the facts. I was obviously _not _okay. "No" He frowned slightly.

"What do you want me to do? Do you want some water?"

"No" I laid down on the floor and closed my eyes.

"Clove, please don't close your eyes" he choked.

"I'm not going anywhere Cato, don't worry" He bent down and picked me up, carrying me back to the bed.

I pushed the food around on the plate. I wasn't going to put anything in my body that wasn't going to stay down. Especially if it was something from the Capitol. "Clove, eat" Enobaria insisted. I just ignored her and sighed.

"What's the schedule for today?" Cato asked.

"You're free until five" Brutus replied, summoning an Avox to pick up my food. "But Enobaria and I have a meeting to go to." He got up, followed by Enobaria and they left quickly. Herb, obviously unsettled by being in a room with two emotionally unstable teenagers, followed closely behind.

"What do you want to do Clove?" Cato asked.

"I don't feel good" I murmured, causing Cato to frown. "Don't frown" I quickly said. "It causes wrinkles"

"I just want you to feel better" he came over and picked me up gingerly. "Let's find us a doctor" he walked towards the elevator. I almost jumped out of his arms. I was trying to avoid the elevator at all costs, but I had Cato to protect me. Cato clicked a button and the elevator dropped slowly.

"I think you pressed the wrong floor" I said, stepping out of his arms and standing. The doors opened to reveal a white hallway. "We should leave" The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.

"What's down here?" Cato grabbed my hand and forgot all about how I was feeling at the moment. He pulled me down the hallway that turned to the right to reveal a large pool. "Sweet" he breathed.

"Can we leave now?" I asked.

"No way, I'm going swimming" and Cato, like a kid in a candy shop, undressed and jumped into the water.

"Cato!" I screamed.

"Clove, I'm fine. Nobody's going to get me in the pool" he motioned for me to come closer but I shook my head persistently. "What if the arena is a giant lake Clove? What are you going to do?" I frowned, not wanting to accept the fact that he was right. I slipped off my clothes and stepped forward, touching the water with my toes. I had never swam before. It was a law for myself not to swim, considering my mother died by drowning.

Cato swam closer. "Come on in Clove, I'll help you."

"I can't Cato."

"You can Clove, remember? Together" he stated, grabbing my hand and helping me into the water. It was a strange sensation. Your movements slowed by the water made every movement graceful. I was still standing but Cato pulled me along, insisting we go deeper. "Just do what I do" he said, moving his arms around and kicking every once in a while, effortlessly keeping his head above the water. I gave it a try, thrashing my arms around in attempt to stay above water, but Cato had to help me again. "Let's just try floating"

He placed his hands on my back and supporting me. I was suspended in the water and it was relaxing. When Cato took his hands away, I started to sink a bit more, but I moved my arms and legs a bit. I wanted to keep floating, it was soo peaceful. "You're doing it Clove" Cato smiled.

I sat on the table impatiently. I was anxious to see what Flo had created for the Tribute Parade. She walked in, followed by Take who carried a large dress bag. "Nice to see you Clove" Flo said, smiling.

"Mom" Take tugged at Flo's arm. "Can I go catch up with my friends"

"Sure, but be home by ten" Flo called after Take.

"So Take's your daughter?" I asked.

"Yeah" she sighed. The thought of being a mom reverberated in my brain. It couldn't be that hard, Flo was a mom and still seemed sane. "Well, today I have your costume!" she tried to change the subject, and I knew exactly why. She didn't want to talk about her motherhood. Flo knew that would lead to talking about me. And that meant talking about the fact that I'll never have kids.

Flo unzipped the bag, revealing a costume like armor. It reminded me of a group of people I had heard about in History. The Romans. It was a tunic in a bronze color. There was an intricate headpiece that looked like wings on the side. The costume was glowing, almost radiating with power.

I put the costume on and was lead by Flo out to my carriage where Cato stood in a similar costume. "You look sexy" I smiled, lowering my voice as the District 1 stylist walked past.

"Same to you" he whispered. "I figure we should go recruit some people for the alliance now" he said at a normal volume. I put on my best 'Career' face and tried to ignore the fact that I was longing to hold Cato's hand. To feel his emotions through our hands, but for now that was not possible. I felt slightly detached from him. We sauntered over to the District 1 group.

The boy was skinny, distastefully skinny. Almost to the point that he looked like someone from District 12. Almost. He would have looked like a starved little kid if not for the muscles on his biceps and the fact that he was 6' 1". "Nice tutu" Cato motioned to the boy's costume. A pink outfit with feathers all over. Definitely District 1.

"I don't think pink is a very manly color" I smiled to myself.

"It's mauve" he snapped. It took all of my being not to laugh.

"Anyway… I'm Cato, this is Clove. We're from 2 and we've decided to recruit you and your partner for the Career alliance."

"How thoughtful of you" a silky voice replied. A tall girl dressed in her pink and feathery costume stepped out from behind the carriage. She had sparkling blue eyes with long blonde locks. She was beautiful and it only made me hate her more. Glimmer. Her name even made her sound like a hoe. "I'm Glimmer and this is Marvel" she said.

"So, are you in?" Cato pressed, obviously uninterested.

"Pushy" Glimmer purred. "I guess" she said. "But we need the people from four too. I heard they're pretty good" We all looked over to see the District 4 tributes staring at us. They both were short and had reddish hair and freckles. Cato motioned for them to come over.

"For a minute I thought you were going to make a Career alliance without the most useful careers" the girl said, raising her eyebrows.

"Nice to meet you too" I scoffed.

"Well my name's Shelby, this is my brother Wyatt"

"Welcome to the alliance" Cato mumbled. "We better get going" we walked back ot the carriage and climbed up in it. I noticed Cato watching the two from District 12 out of the corner of his eye.

"What's wrong?" I whispered.

"I don't like them" he growled. "I don't like them one bit" the carriage lurched forward , following Glimmer and Marvel. The crowd slightly cheered, but when we came out, the crowd roared. It was exhilarating, but heart wrenching at the same time. This whole society was driven by the thought of teenagers killing each other. The only reason they were that way was because of Snow. I hated him soo much. My head was pulsing and as we neared the end of the road, I took a bold chance. I stretched up onto my tip toes and kissed Cato lightly._ That_ got the crowd going. I was looking around, smiling like an idiot.

I thought the crowd was cheering for us, up until I saw the screens. It was the group from District 12. They were on fire. It was a spectacular sight, and I probably would have been more impressed if not for the fact that I had kissed Cato and the whole crowd had missed it. Cato was still looking at me, baffled.

The carriages made a semi circle in front of the training center and Snow's voice introduced us as the tributes of the 74th annual hunger games. The carriages continued inside. "Clove, that probably wasn't a good idea" Cato said. "Snow's going to-" but before Cato could finish, I was pulled by the arm. I was taken into the empty lobby. It was President Snow who had grabbed me, the last person I wanted to see.

"Quite the guts you have to try something like that" he purred. "Too bad it didn't work." He made me sit down on a couch. "Clove, you seem like a nice girl. You deserve someone better than Cato. He's a heartbreaker. Let Glimmer have him, you can do soo much better." He took my hand and wrapped his hands around them. "I have a gift for you Clove. Go up to your room, it'll be in there. I hope you enjoy it" he said.

I didn't know what to expect. A gift? From Snow? This couldn't be good. What if my room was filled with roses? What if I walk in my room and it's a gas chamber? What if he's just trying to get rid of me? I was mostly terrified at what it could be, but a bit curious. As the elevator door opened, I walked towards my room. An Avox stood in front of it and gave me a warm smile. I wondered what she had done to become an Avox. I pitied her in the fact that she could never again speak.

The door creaked slightly as I opened it and entered the room. It was dark, but I saw the silhouette of someone sitting on my bed. The lights from the streets of the Capitol illuminated his face softly. And there, sitting on my bed was Finnick Odair.

**O.o Please review!**


	8. Negative

**Hola dear readers who never read my author notes O.o I had a bit of writers block btw Heres chapter 8, hope you enjoy!**

Chapter 8

Negative

I went to training early. A.) because I couldn't stand one more second of Enobaria nagging me about eating, B.) I was nauseous and if I got my mind off of it, it would go away, C.) I needed to think about some things. I walked into the empty gyms and over to my beloved knife throwing station. I subconsciously threw the knives at the dummies.

I thought about Cato mostly. I hadn't gone into his room that night, for fear Glimmer had followed him back to his room, or worse. Snow had locked them in a room together. Cato wasn't the kind of person to cheat on me, for sure, but Glimmer was different than my competition back in District 2, and that scared me. The Capitol had changed so many circumstances of our relationship, that I wasn't even sure he still loved me. I guess Snow had finally achieved his goal. Cato didn't love me and I was heartbroken. It wasn't yet a proven fact though. There was the chance he still could love me, but the chances seemed slim.

I guess with a sadistic personality comes pessimism, so doubt was one of my many talents. I was good at second guessing myself. That's not particularly a bad thing, but when I second guessed Cato's love, my emotions were wrecked, only driven by one thing. Doubt. Doubt. Doubt. But then I remembered what Finnick had told me.

_I sat beside him on the bed. "It's not supposed to be like this. Cato's supposed to win these games, I was supposed to win the games when I turned 18. Everything is all wrong." I sighed. _

_"Clove, keep him close. Even when at times you doubt his love, keep him close." I smiled. _

_"Do tell me, all knowing Finnick, where you learned such a thing." He fumbled around in his pocket until he found his wallet. He pulled out a small picture of a girl. _

_"Annie Cresta? The victor from the second quarter quell?" he nodded. ]_

_"That girl loves me more than I ever thought possible. And sometimes, I think she doubts my love, but she still loves me unconditionally and that is the only thing that keeps me from going crazy" he said. _

But I had already gone crazy. It was too late to have Cato hold me together. My eyes blurred with tears as I raised a knife to my neck. It was too late to be saved. I pressed the blade into my neck and felt it break the skin. I dug deeper, tears streaming down my face.

"Clove!" the knife clattered to the floor as Cato tackled me to the ground. Dammit. I thrashed as much as I could, trying to get Cato off of me, but he held me to the ground. "What the hell?" he screamed, tears cascading down his face. "Clove, why would you try and kill yourself!? How do you think I would feel if you died?!"

"Cato" was all I could say. I wasn't sure_ what_ to say.

"Clove, if you died I wouldn't be able to live without you! SO why the hell would you commit us both to death?! This isn't Romeo and Juliet, we both live remember!? Together!" he sobbed.

Training had officially started, and my prep team did their best to cover up my suicidal attempt. I was waiting for my turn at hand to hand combat as I watched Cato. He was still steaming from earlier that morning, so he went all out while he practiced with his sword. He walked off to get some water and came back and his sword was gone. Considering he was still angry, this was not good.

"Who took my knife!" he bellowed. He saw the closest person, a small boy from 3. "Did you take my sword?" He lunged at the boy threateningly.

"Cato, calm down" Glimmer, Marvel, Wyatt, Shelby and I all rushed over to Cato. We desperately tried to calm him down before the game makers could see him threatening another tribute. I finally had to drag him out of the gym to talk to him.

"Cato, you've got to calm down" I said cooly.

"I can't Clove! You try to kill yourself because you doubt me? I don't understand why you would even think about it!"

"It was an impulse Cato, I wasn't thinking"

"Obviously" he lowered his voice slightly.

"I'm sorry" He kissed my forehead.

"I know. Don't do it again" he whispered painfully.

When we got back into the gym, everyone had cleared out for lunch. We went to the career table where Glimmer and Marvel were in a heated discussion over whether the bow or the spear was a better choice of weapon. "'bout time you got back" Shelby remarked, obviously fed up with the debate between Glimmer and Marvel.

Enobaria made sure to yell at me some more when we had dinner. Brutus just sat back groaning and Herb played with her nails.

"I told you I'm sorry!" I yelled at Enobaria. Cato rubbed my ankle with his foot soothingly. Enobaria fell silent, obviously done arguing. "Well if I may be excused, I'm going to go to my room" I stood up abruptly and retreated to my room. Cato followed slowly behind.

"She was just worried, you know" Cato said, sitting on the end of my bed.

"Yeah yeah everybody was worried about Clove, I get it. You don't have to tell me" I dressed into a nightgown and lay beside Cato. He played with my hair silently.

"Clove" he whispered in my ear. "You are my world" I took this as an acceptance of my apology. I climbed up onto Cato and kissed him.

"I love you" we mumbled in unison. Cato's hand went up the back of my shirt and unclasped my bra. He threw both onto the floor. I helped him take off his shirt.

"This is horrible" I smiled.

"What?" he asked, pulling away.

"I have to go to the bathroom. Now of all times" I laughed, causing Cato to smile.

"You should laugh more often" he tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear. I got up and walked into the bathroom slowly, but stopped dead in my tracks when I saw a small blue box.

"Shit" I mumbled under my breath. Cato must've heard me because he came up behind me and rubbed my shoulders, but his body went rigid when he saw the box. On it was a note.

_Dear Clove, Just got to be sure. –Enobaria _A pregnancy test. Enobaria got me a pregnancy test. "Clove, you can't be-" Cato's voice cracked.

"I'm not Cato, I'm positive" I said, mostly trying to reassure myself. He picked up the box.

"But you've been throwing up every morning Clove. Signs say yes. You're taking the test." I shook my head. "Clove, we need to know. I need to know"

I stood by the counter, holding the test, waiting for the minute to be over. But it seemed like an eternity. A baby would complicate things. Cato would try to protect me even more than he already was. If there was a baby, he would make sure I came out alive and that would mean he would be dead. The thought made me cringe.

"I would be an awful mother" I blurted. Cato looked at me sternly.

"Don't think like that Clove, you would make a great mother. I would be a horrible father"

"You _can _be a bit rough sometimes." I remarked. Cato and I laughed. It wasn't exactly the reaction that most would expect from us, but after all the tension that day, we had to relieve some of it. When I laughed, it felt like I had let out a deep sigh I had been holding in for a long time.

"I would want a girl."

"That's funny, I would want a boy" I said.

"What if we had both? What about twins?" he asked.

"Doubtful" and there it was again. Doubt. I quickly corrected myself. "Maybe"

"If we had a girl, I would want to name her Michelle" And hearing Cato talk about the possibilities of parenthood ignited the impossible hope of us both surviving again.

I looked down at the test and gave a heavy sigh. Half out of disappointment, half of relief. Negative. "False alarm" Cato gave the same kind of sigh.

**Un eventful, I know. Sorry… I just had REEEEALLY BAD writers block. :/**


	9. Smooth Sea Never Made A Skillful Sailor

**So I think Im finally overmy writers block and I was really eager to continue, so heres the next chapter!**

Chapter 9

A Smooth Sea Never Made A Skillful Sailor

Cato was not going to let me out of his sight anytime soon. We had fallen asleep tangled in each other, but he kept a tight grip on my right wrist. So when my stomach started churning again, I had to drag him out of bed and into the bathroom with me. He rubbed his eyes groggily.

"I don't understand why this keeps happening" he frowned.

"Me either" I frowned and climbed back into his arms.

"Do you want to see a doctor?" he asked, stroking my hair slowly.

"No" I replied quickly. The thought of the doctor's office always terrified me.

_It had been 3 days since my mother's televised death, and my dad was in bad shape. He woke up every morning yelling at the top of his lungs, but lately he hadn't even been going to sleep. He would stay at the local bar and then come home in the morning. I was still sick as well which didn't help at all. It was two in the morning when my father came home, and I was sitting in his bathroom taking my own temperature. He stumbled in._

_"What the hell are you doing here?" he spat._

_"I was just taking my temperature daddy." I backed into the corner of the bathroom. My father's beatings had already become regular and I was trying to avoid another one. He reached for the thermometer and stared at it intently. _

_"Why'd you have to get sick?" He yelled._

_"It- it's not my fault daddy" he threw the thermometer across the room. _

_"Come on" he insisted, yanking at my wrist and pulling me to the top of the stair case. He threw me down the flight of stairs. "Get up" I was smart enough not to give him the satisfaction of my tears, so I just stared coldly into his gray eyes that had recently turned to stone. I could no longer read my father's emotions, he had cut himself off from the world. _

_I picked myself off the ground and noticed the bruises forming on my arms and legs, not to mention the cut above my eyebrow that was bleeding. He pulled me out to the car and locked all the doors, driving to the doctors hastily._

_I had never been to a doctor before, and so far this experience wasn't going well. Whenever I had gotten sick, my mother would help me get better. She didn't believe in going to the doctor, and normally my father didn't either. But everything had changed. I was pulled into the office and it was stark white. Soo white it gave me headache, which wasn't helping me at the moment. He checked me in with the front office and then left quickly. Probably headed back to the bar. _

_"Hey sweetie" a nurse walked up to me and smiled. "Let's go see Dr. Jackie." The nurse took my hand and led me down the hall. It reminded me all too much of my father's abusive grip and I had to resist pulling my hand away. When we entered the room there was a doctor waiting for us. _

_"Clove, I'm doctor Jackie" the doctor shook my hand and made me sit on the table. She poked and prodded me and all the while I kept asking for my mom. All I wanted was my mother to hold my hand as these strange people touched me. "Clove, it's okay. Your mom's not here now" that only made me more angry. _

_"That's because they killed her. The Capitol made the boy from 11 kill her" I snapped. The doctor just sat down and took my hand in hers. _

_"You know what Clove. You'll see your mom again someday" and that's why I hated the doctor's office. Because Dr. Jackie was a liar. All doctors were liars. They always said things were going to be okay. And Dr. Jackie told me the biggest lie of all. A lie that got my hopes up. _

"Are you sure?" Cato asked.

"Yes" I stood up shakily and walked out to the living room. Brutus and Enobaria were sitting at the table silently. When I walked in, Enobaria looked up at me. She examined me from every angle before finally saying something.

"What'd it say?"

"Negative" I barked at her. She gave a slow nod and I saw a slight frown form at the corner of her lips. "What? You're not happy?"

"Well, it's just the fact that if it were positive, you might not have to go into the games" And there it was again, getting my hopes up for something I knew was impossible.

…

We got down to training a bit late, but when we did get there, I found myself not wanting to go throw knives. Something in the back of my mind told me I should do something with survival, so I went to the fire making station. That's where I saw the girl from 12. Katniss was her name. But everyone was calling her the girl on fire, which I found ironic considering she was at the fire building station. She gave me a furtive glance as I bent down beside her to pick up some sticks.

"Something wrong?" I asked. She shook her head slowly.

"Just the fact that" she sat back on her elbows, "If you're in the career pack, you won't need to know how to build a fire. You'll have all the supplies."

"You think you're soo clever don't you?" She raised her hands defensively.

"Just being logical, that's all." She went back to rubbing sticks together. I shook my head in disbelief. She was being rude. I showed her up by lighting a fire in less than a minute, which left her baffled. I stood up and proceeded to where the rest of the career pack was meeting. They were looking intently at the boy from 12, who sat painting his arm like a tree.

"That's impressive" I blurted. Everyone looked at me accusingly. "What?"

"It doesn't matter, he's not going to avoid us with a bit of mud and sticks" Marvel grumbled. I watched as Katniss went to go talk to the boy. I saw how he looked at her and I recognized it. It was the way Cato looked at me. It was a look of love.

Katniss caught us looking at her and her partner and she whispered to the boy. He gave her a confused glance before walking over to the weights. I almost laughed. He could not possibly pick up something that heavy, not to mention throw it. But I found myself corrected. He hurled it straight at us and it narrowly missed Glimmer (sadly) and hit a grate behind us. I was impressed and ultimately, won over. If the boy loved Katniss, and there was the chance Katniss loved him back, we could take him into our alliance and use him against her.

"I want him" I said. And yet again everyone looked at me in a weird way.

"Why?" Wyatt asked.

"I just do, we can use him"

"Hell no!" Glimmer interjected.

"Just trust me" I dug my fingernails into my palms, offset by everyone doubting me. Doubt. It was always there.

"I don't think it's a good idea" Marvel frowned.

"I agree, we can't add another person" Shelby droned.

"Clove's right, we should keep him. He'll be useful" Cato finally piped in. The fact that he agreed with me made me smile, and obviously made Glimmer frown.

"But-" Marvel started to argue.

"No, he's joining." Cato crossed his arms, signaling the conversation was over.

…

Lunch came everyone sat down, leaving no room for me. This obviously meant I would be the one to go ask the boy to join. I sighed and walked over to where he sat with Katniss. Before I reached the table, Katniss got up and left.

"Hey" I said.

"Hi?" the boy looked at me quizzically.

"Can I talk to you?"

"You are talking to me"

"Well, the career group was wondering if you'd like to join our alliance"

"Why?" he furrowed his brow.

"We think you have some really nice talents and, let's face it, we don't want to see you die in the blood bath, so come on. Join the alliance. You'll live longer" I tried to sound as nice as I could. He thought for a moment before nodding.

"Okay" he finally concluded. "I'm Peeta by the way" he reached out his hand.

"Clove" I replied. I saw Katniss walking back to the table. "And that's my cue to leave." I stood up. "Oh, and don't tell your girlfriend, it'll make things a bit complicated if you know what I mean" I walked back to my table where no one had left room for me. I stepped in between Glimmer and Cato and sat down quickly, almost pushing Glimmer off the bench.

"What'd he say?" Cato asked, trying to hide his smile.

"He's in"

**No cliff hanger, but I hope that won't make you want me to add a new chapter any less. **


	10. Clumsy

**AGH so i was on vacation and i was writing this chapter on my ipad and then it erased it all and im just like FFFFUUUUCCCCCKKKKK so im super duper mad right now so i will try and re write it :/ but it was pretty fucking awesome the first time :( **

****Chapter 10

Clumsy

The next morning was really rough. I spent at least twenty minutes parked in front of the toilet. I made sure to close the door behind me though because I didn't want to wake Cato. He needed his sleep. So when I finally came out of the bathroom, I tried to be as quiet as possible. I was about to slip back into bed when my hip grazed the bedside table and something fell off of it.

"Clove?" Cato sat up quickly.

"Sorry, I was trying to be quiet." I smiled.

"Why are you smiling?"

"No reason" I replied plainly. I was smiling because beneath my feet was a puddle of water, shards of broken glass, and a limp rose. A white rose. Not to mention, a white rose with a new petal.

...

"Not bad" Cato said, admiring where Marvel's spear had hit its mark on the dummy. Marvel was pretty good for someone that seemed to be lacking soo much strength. Then again, i shouldn't have been saying anything, i was smaller than him.

We were holding our own training evaluations to assess the condition of our current Career pack. Marvel had done well, and next was Glimmer.

She walked up to the archery station and notched an arrow. It took every human part of me not to laugh as she tugged on the string. She could barely pull it back. It finally drew back and she let go of the string.

"You can probably slow someone down." Cato said. "But you're not killing anyone anytime soon" He looked at the arrow that was notched in the shoulder of a dummy.

The day went on like this for a while, evaluating everyone's skill level. The whole Career pack admired my knife throwing skill. We ended up watching Lover Boy from a distance. We had decided to let it be a surprise when Katniss found out he was part of the Career pack.

He seemed slightly skilled. He could lift heavy things and that was the extent of his skill. He could camouflage well, but the Career pack didn't need that.

...

When the individual sessions began, I was sitting next to Cato. He was concealing the fact that we were holding hands behind his back as we waited for my name to be called. When it finally WAS called, he gave my hand a reassuring squeeze and let go of it.

There was a slim chance I could ruin my session. Especially considering I had trained my whole life for it, so i was totally confident going in. But I ended coming out a wreck and this is how:

"Hello, my name is Clove Eddings" i said before the Game makers who all quieted down. I made my way to my beloved knife throwing station and began hitting my mark every time. To add effect, I backed farther away from the target each time.

I was finally on the opposite side of the gym, with one knife left to throw. The Game makers were all silent and on the edges of their seats. I picked up the knife and imediatley it felt heavy in my hand. It was the knife. There was still a slight trace of dried blood on it. The empty gym suddenly reminded me of that faitful morning I tried to end my life. I took a shaky breath. I cleared my throat, but it came out an octave higher than I had intended. My voice cracked. I had to throw the knife. If I didn't, the Gamemakers would think less of me. I finally knew what it felt like to be weak. I steadied myself to throw and let it go.

I heard a satisfying thud, but saw a disappointing sight. The knife had missed its mark and lodged itself in the leg of the dummy. I was done for.

...

"It'll be fine Clove, I'm sure" Cato tried to reassure me. I just kept ignoring until I heard the familiar sound of Ceasar Flickerman's voice.

Glimmer miraculously scored a nine, which was a surprise to all of us. I suppose she did a lap dance or pole dance or something to bribe the Game makers, because a nine was physically impossible for her. Marvel scored a nine as well, which was expected of him. Then came Cato's name. He scored a ten. He gave a slight smile, but knew better than to celebrate before knowing my outcome. And there was my name followed by a

Ten. A ten. I scored a ten, even though I screwed up my last throw, the Gamemakers must've seen my potential. Cato and i talked about our scores when we heard a strange sound.

"eleven"

"Did he just say eleven?" we all blurted. And as if to clarify our question, Ceasar flickerman restated it.

"Katniss Everdeen with and Eleven" we were all shocked. Cato was angry as well, and he got up and walked off to his room. I knew I would need to calm him down eventually, so I followed after him.

"Clove, I need to be alone" he said before shutting the door in my face.

...

That night I spent alone in the silk sheets and I was freezing without Cato's arms wrapped around me. He hadn't come in to say goodnight, to kiss me, to sleep with me or anything. It was a sobering thought that I might be loosing Cato.

But that day went my in a blur of my prep team, a dress, and instructions on how to sit during my interview. I finally caught up to everything when i found myself seated between Cato and Marvel. The interviews had started, seeing as how Glimmer was making her way up to the front of the stage.

"I'm sorry" Cato whispered in my ear. I smiled.

Glimmer was wearing a short, slightly transparent pink dress. She walked awkwardly as if to not flash the Capitol with her thong, but her dress was doing that for her. Cato stared at his hands, for respect of me being by his side.

"So Glimmer" Ceasar began. "Do you have anyone special in your life?"

"Well," she hesitated. I caught her looking at her hands, out to the audience, then back at Cato and I. "There is someone." I prepared myself to hear about her fantasy relationship with Cato. "Actually, back in District 1 I have a husband. And a daughter. She just turned one actually" she waved at the cameras. "Happy birthday Price" the Captiol gave a synchronized aw.

"And how do you plan on getting back to your family?"

"Well I'm hoping some sponsors will get me through this. i just want to make it back to my family." As the interview went on, i thought about what Glimmer had said. She had risked being chewed out by Snow to tell the Capitol who she really was, and I admired her for that. I also partially wanted her to make it home, for fear that her daughter would grow up like I did. When Glimmer sat down, I took her hand and gave it a squeeze as tears streamed down her face.

"It's going to be okay" I whispered.

"I miss them so much" she sobbed.

...

I had to clear my mind to focus on walking across the stage. Left right. left right. It was a miracle i even made it to my seat.

"What an entrance Clove, i;m very impressed. I know I could never walk in those shoes."

"Trust me, It's difficult" I said.

"Let's have a round of applause for Clove Eddings" the Capitol replied with the roar. "So Clove, do tell me, do you have anyone special?"

"You know Ceasar" I leaned closer. "That's classified information" the Capitol laughed. "No, there is someone. He's a really great guy. He's a bit rough at times, but once you get to know him he's a really nice person. He's romantic guy. He's a little clumsy sometimes though" I giggled, remembering our first date.

_There was a knock on my door and I had to double check to make sure it wasn't my dad. Instead it was Cato, standing in the rain, soaked to the bone, holding a bouquet of roses. "Clove, can you let me in" he looked around. "It's a little wet out here" I opened up the door and smiled. His face lightened up when he saw me. "You look great._"

_"I guess you probably looked better before you got here" I pulled him in. "Do you want to borrow some of my dad's clothes?" _

_"Yeah, that'd be good" I ran upstairs and grabbed the only thing I could find that wasn't stained. A pair of pajama pants. _

_"This is all I could find" I said, handing it to him. _

_"That's fine" He started to undress and I turned around. _

_"Thanks for the warning" I laughed. _

_"Oh, my bad. You can look now" he said. I turned around and he handed me the roses. "Those are for you" _

_"Aw, thank you Cato" I took them into the kitchen. When I got there, I looked out the window, frowning at the rain. "I guess we're not eating out. Can't go anywhere in this rain" _

_"That's okay. I'm a great chef you know" _

_"Oh really?" I raised an eyebrow. _

_"I'll make you some eggs" _

_"Are you saying that because I look like the kind of girl who eats eggs or because that's the only thing you know how to cook?" _

_"Both" he pulled out a frying pan and started the burner. _

_When dinner was ready, I sat down in my chair and he came up to push it in. Instead of pushing me closer to the table he dumped me out of the chair. "Oh, crap. I didn't mean for that to happen. I'm sorry" He knelt down to help me up but I just laughed. _

__"Thank you Clove" Caesar said, and just like that I walked back to my seat. Cato went up to the seat and crossed his legs, just to annoy our mentors. "So Cato, are you ready for the games?"

"Im excited, I'm ready for them to start. I think we have a really great mix of kids this year. I'm ready" He replied. He was interjected by an outburst of teenage girls yelling 'we love you cato!'

"Do you love your fans as much as they love you?" Caesar chuckled.

"I really appreciate the support they give me. It's great, but I'm in love with someone else."

"Who?" Caesar asked.

"I'm in love with Clove Eddings"

**So tell me what you think, I have a busy weekend next weekend so I'll try to update but if i cant im sorry. I have wednesday off though so i fi find time ill update**

**PLEASE REVIEW**


	11. What's A Soul Mate?

**So I had the day off and I decided to keep on writing! So here's chapter 11!**

Chapter 11

What's A Soul Mate?

_Shit_

The Capitol burst into a roar of confusion. The cameras were focused on my face, and I did my best to hide all emotion. Cato just sat with a smug smile on his face, waiting for Caesar to respond.

"Well, that's quite a statement." Caesar laughed. "Do you think she loves you back?"

"I've got a good feeling" he stared at his hands and smiled.

"Well" Caesar obviously didn't know what to say. "Best of luck to you, I believe that's all the time we have. Thank you Cato, and good luck in the games" Cato nodded and walked back to his seat. When he sat down, my first impulse was to hug him, but I just smiled at him. He rubbed my ankle with his foot as he took my hand. It wasn't until I looked down that I saw he had slipped something onto my finger.

My first thought was _where the hell did he get a ring? _But then it finally hit me. Cato had proposed (sort of). Cato wanted me to marry him. There was only one problem. In a couple weeks, one of us would be dead. And that person would most likely be me.

But instead of dwelling on the future, I just thought about the present. I looked up at him, smiled and nodded. He gave a shaky sigh of relief and turned his attention back to the stage.

The rest of the interviews went by in a blur, up until I saw the boy from 11. It was the boy from my dream, the one who had been chasing me. I had a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Not like the one that I had in the mornings. I felt a knot catch in my throat and I quickly swallowed to make it disappear. I had a horrible hunch about him.

Then came Katniss. I have to say, her dress was impressive, but the way she twirled around on the stage made her look ditsy. Her interview consisted of her spinning, giggling, and talking about her sister and it was all too boring. When it finally ended, I was half asleep.

Then came Peeta who obviously was anxious. His hands were shaking and a piece of his hair wasn't slicked back. He looked like a scared animal. I wasn't fully paying attention to his interview until he said something about Katniss.

"Because she came here with me" he said. How dare he. How dare he steal the spotlight from Cato and I? We may have just lost every single sponsor we had gained! Peeta was going to be in trouble. He was going to pay. He was- wait a second. This was just another piece of leverage we could use against him. We could kill Katniss by manipulating his 'love'.

…

The first thing I did when the interviews were over was hug Cato. I jumped into his arms and he picked me up off the ground and twirled me around. The other tributes seemed to disappear as Cato held me. We were inseparable as we walked up the stairs and into our room. We laid in his bed, whispering sweet nothings into each other's ears. I was on a natural high, until a sobering thought hit me.

"Cato?"

"Yeah" he replied, smiling like an idiot still.

"The Games are tomorrow" as if on cue, Enobaria opened the door.

"I'm going to need your tokens for the games" she said impatiently.

"I don't have one" Cato said plainly. I got up, remembering I still had the token I was going to give him when he left for the games. That seemed like a lifetime ago. I picked up my clothes from the reaping. That time seemed soo far away. That Clove was out of reach, and I had become a new person. It scared me that I had changed so much in just a matter of days.

I took the dog tag out of my pocket. It had engraved in it _A soul mate is the person who inspires you to be a better person _and the back said _I will always love you, see you when you get home ~Clove _I handed it to Enobaria, along with the diamond ring Cato had given me. She gave a halfhearted smile, and left.

"Are you okay Clove, you don't look so good." I felt my face flush.

"I'm fine; I just need some fresh air." I quickly left the room. I figure most lovers would want to spend as much time together before the games, but I didn't want Cato to see me like this. Not now.

I made it into the elevator before doubling over in pain. My stomach was churning, I felt my temperature rising, and my head was pounding. It was de-ja-vou. This was exactly how sick I was when my mother died.

I couldn't be sick. Not while the games were going to start soon. I hadn't even been in the arena, and I was already weak. I pressed the button for the top floor and it shot up to the 12th floor, not helping my stomach. I made sure none of the District 12-er's were awake before scurrying to the roof access.

The cold Capitol air smacked me in the face when I made it to the roof. I took a couple uneasy steps before crawling to a comfortable perch overlooking the Capitol.

It was a beautiful place. Especially the architecture. I may have liked it more if not for the fact that this was the very place I was condemned to death. Surprisingly enough, I hadn't thrown up, but I still felt like shit. I heard someone step onto the roof , but I didn't take the energy to turn around.

"I told you Cato, I'm fine" I murmured, hiding the fact that I was clutching my stomach.

"Hey Clove" Glimmer said, sitting down.

"Oh, sorry, I thought you were someone else."

"Yeah." She trailed off. "It's nice up here. With the fresh air." She finally looked at me. "Clove, are you okay?"

"I'm fine" I buried my face in my hands.

"No, you look sick. We should get you to a doctor" she placed a cold hand on my forehead. "Clove, you're burning up. Let me help you"

"I'm not going to a doctor" I said flatly.

"Fine, but let me find you something. You can't be sick when you go into the arena."

"I'm fine" a cold breeze whistled past and I suddenly turned extremely cold. I curled in a ball, half trying to calm my stomach, half trying to stay warm. But Glimmer looked fine, she obviously wasn't cold. Was it just me? "Can I have a blanket or something?" I finally said.

"That's what I thought" she smiled and left to go find a blanket. She returned quickly, with a blanket and some medicine. "I know I shouldn't be snooping, but I found emergency meds in the mentor's rooms, so I got you some." She handed the bottle to me. I swallowed the pill dry, causing me to gag, and wrapped myself in the blankets.

"Glimmer, thank you for everything."

"You're welcome Clove" she sighed. "I'm just sad that we can't all live"

"What's it like?" I asked.

"What's what like?"

"What's it like to have a soul mate?" I felt like a five year old asking her mother a question, but I was truly wondering what it was like and how Glimmer knew he was the one. Was Cato my one? A smiled tugged at the corners of her mouth.

"A soul mate is like a best friend but more. It's the one person in the world who knows you better than anyone else." She moistened her lips. "It's someone that makes you a better person." She gave a slight laugh. "Actually they don't make you a better person, you do that yourself, because they inspire you. A soul mate is someone you carry with you forever. It's the one person who knew you and accepted you and believed in you before anyone else did-or when no one else would-and no matter what happens you'll always love them." Her lips parted into a big grin. "nothing can ever change that"

Cato was my soul mate.

**SO there's that chapter. Tell me what you think. JUST CLICK THE COMMENT THING AND DO A STREAM OF CONSCIOUSNESS. WHAT YOU DIDN'T LIKE, WHAT YOU LIKED. Please review, I really like it when ppl do tht. It makes my day. SO MAKE MY DAY. And I'd like to tell you whaqt's in store for this fanfic**

** -There will definitely be a second fanfic (Im not done with this one, im just telling you in advanced.) **

**-And I'm not sure if you guys picked up on this but there was a reference to Clayton and Lacey, the lovers from four in a certain games in one of my chapters made by enobaria, I'm going to write a fan fic about them. So news about that will be posted through this fanfic, **

**THANKS TO ALL MY FOLLOWERS I LOVE YOU GUYS**


	12. The Last Night

**I tried to write this tonight so that I can't just leave my wonder followers without a chapter for the weekend. I really appreciate all of the reviews. Thanks for all the comments!**

Chapter 12

The Last Night

It was one in the morning and Glimmer and I had been sitting on the roof for hours. My fever had finally broke, but I still felt like shit. It was 1:32 am when Marvel came onto the roof.

"Hey Glim, Gloss wants us both asleep." He gave me a furvitive glance. "What's wrong with Clove?"

"She's sick" Glimmer replied, standing up.

"Better get better by tomorrow, you're one of our strongest links" the thought of someone saying that just made me feel better. People actually believed in me. It was a foreign concept after all that my dad had told me during my childhood.

"Thanks, I will"

"You want me to help you back to your floor?" Glimmer asked.

"No, I'll go down in a couple minutes. I think I just want to be alone." Glimmer gave a nod and I heard both of them exit the roof. A couple minutes passed and I heard the door open again.

"I'm fine Glim, I'll go down soon" Instead of hearing her reply, I felt Cato's arms wrap around me.

"You okay?" He leaned forward and kissed my neck.

"I'm just sick Cato. Glimmer was taking care of me" he nodded, burying his face in my hair.

"Are you okay now? Do you need anything?" he asked, his words muffled by my hair.

"I'm fine." I let the silence take place and concentrated on Cato's hot breath on my neck. It was a nice counterpart to the frigid air that was surrounding us. Not to mention the chilled dew that clung to every part of my body.

I've always loved that time of the day. It's as if no one in the world exists but you. It's just the rebellion of the whole thing, staying up until early in the morning. But my usual peaceful early morning silence was obstructed by the sounds of the Capitol eagerly awaiting the deaths of 23 teenagers.

I finally squirmed to a more comfortable position, now facing Cato. He reached forward and pulled our faces together. He kissed me soo lightly, my whole body started to tingle, like the first time we had kissed.

_I was walking down the hallway off to class when I caught sight of Cato and his friends. Since our relationship wasn't public, we hadn't changed at all around his friends. So when he was with his friends, he was his usual arrogant self. _

_"Clove, come on over here" Cato motioned for me to walk over to them. _

_"What."_

_"We all put a bet on who would win a fight between you and Drew" Derrick motioned to the tallest boy in the group. He was bulky, but not as muscular as Cato. I had seen him once or twice in the training center. And I knew his specialty was hand to hand combat. _

_"I think Clove would win"_

_"Why don't we test it out?" another one of Cato's friends suggested. I didn't like the idea of it, especially considering Drew was three times the size as me. I would obviously loose. But I couldn't back down from a challenge. _

_"Fine" _

_…_

_The end of school came and I met Cato's group of friends in the padded room. I took my stance and prepared myself for impact. _

_It was 1… 2… 3 and lights out. I don't remember anything from the fight. I just remember waking up to Cato giving me CPR. More specifically mouth to mouth. I made sure no one was in the room before kissing Cato. My whole body tingled at the sensation. _

The mixture of sweat and early morning dew only made me shiver more. Cato and I were tangled up in each other. The sound of the Capitol's cries had finally subsided. Lost ina sea of blankets and knotted together, I was perfectly contempt. If this would be my last good memory before death, I wouldn't mind.

I was with Cato. I was with my soul mate. I wasn't dreading tomorrow's event. I believe that's only because in that moment I learned how to live in the present without dwelling the future.

"Clove" Cato murmured in one short, quick breath. "Will you be my forever?" he asked.

"Yes"

…

I woke up on the roof of the training center, still wrapped up in Cato's strong arms. I kissed him to wake him up and he replied with a faint slime playing across his lips.

"We should probably get up" I said. He pulled me on top of him.

"You're so beautiful"

"You're avoiding the inevitable, Cato. We need to get up" he gave a heavy sigh.

"Okay" I climbed off of him and pulled on a couple articles of clothing. We climbed down from the roof and into the building. And then I noticed. I hadn't thrown up that morning. I was finally free from being sick. It was a miracle.

We scurried out of District 12's floor and down to floor 2. Enobaria and Brutus were running around, wondering where we were. "We're right here" I said.

"What the hell? You can't stay out all night before the games!"

"But we did" I smirked.

"Never mind" Enobaria groaned. "Come on, it's time to get going" I kissed Cato one last time, whispering that I loved him, before following Enobaria.

…

Breakfast on the aircraft was uninteresting. It consisted of Enobaria pounding my head with information. When we finally reached the arena and I walked down into the cell. Flo was there, waiting for me with my clothes. It consisted of a black shirt and a parachute jacket. Flo slipped Cato's ring on my finger and I sighed and watched light catch the diamond, sending rainbows around the room.

Lastly, Flo did my hair. And then we sat, talking about the games. "I believe you can win"

"Thanks" I looked at the ground and kicked my feet back and forth.

"I know you love Cato" she paused. "But if you're going to win, you need to stay focused. You can't let him distract you"

"How can you say that?" I looked up at her and glared.

"It's just, I-" the countdown began and Flo shook it off, motioning towards the tube. I walked over and stepped into it. The countdown was getting closer to ending. The glass finally closed and it was completely silent for a moment. Then the plate began to rise. I closed my eyes, knowing if I left them open, the sun would obscure my vision. I finally felt the plate come to a halt and opened my eyes.

And there it was. There was the arena. It had woods surrounding the meadow that the cornucopia was in, and a lake behind me. This was a cleverly built arena. Not only would it test the tribute physically, but it would test me mentally.

Because this was the same arena my mother had died in.

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	13. Expectations

**Happy Sunday! SURPRISE! I wrote you another chapter :P (one of my lovely readers corrected several of my District tributes, thank you CloveRivers! So im fixing them)**

Chapter 13

Expectations

"5…4…3…2…" the sound of the countdown echoed in my skull, rebounding off the terrible memories of nightmares about this place. I glanced down at the lake. I could see it playing out, just like it happened yesterday. My mom, floating in the water, and then drowning without any warning. Taken from me like that. "1"

I heard the number, but the fact that I should get off my plate then didn't register until a couple seconds later. Other tributes were already running around, picking off each other one by one. I finally ran off my plate and towards the Cornucopia. I saw the knives. _My_ knives at the mouth of the Cornucopia.

The thing that really got me going, that really got me in the killing mode, was seeing the girl from 7 trying to take me beloved knives. This infuriated me and the only thing I wanted in the world at that moment was her dead. I took the blow gun that was closer to me and shot her in the head. I could see the green poison seeping into her blood stream and she crumpled to the ground, pale faced.

I retrieved the knives and looked for my next victim. Then I saw her. Katniss lying on the ground, with Wyatt hovering over her. I saw him going in for the kill and my alter ego got a hold of me. I had to be the one to kill her. I wanted to be the one to kill her. I threw my knife and it hit him in the back. A sinister smile formed on my face as he crumpled to the ground.

Then I went towards Katniss. I threw a knife at her head and watched it as it was headed straight for its mark. Then she placed her orange backpack between her and the knife. Fuck.

She got up and started to run. I almost went after her, but I saw Glimmer fighting off the two tributes from eight. I ran over and helped her take them down. When the screaming of dying tributes died down and the blood bath ended, all adrenaline in my body had been used. I was exhausted and thank god that the next thing that was said was, "Everybody get some sleep, we hunt at night"

I helped everyone else put up tents and that's when Shelby noticed Wyatt was gone. "Where's Wyatt?" she asked, looking around frantically. Then she saw his body. She let out a stifled scream. That's also when it hit me. I had killed a fellow Career pack mate. "Who did this?" she asked, looking at the members of the alliance, tears welling in her eyes. She glanced at his body once more and noticed the knife. "Clove" she growled.

She lunged at me, and hit me with incredible force. I hit the ground hard as she continued to claw at my face and hair. I managed to kick her off of me and to retrieve a knife. I wiped blood from the corner of my mouth. "I'm sorry" I said half-heartedly.

"You killed him!" She lunged at me again, but before she could reach me, Marvel grabbed her. He tied her to a post, much like a horse, and she kept yelling about me. The things she said were things I had heard before, but for some reason, they hit me deep. So while I was trying to sleep, all I heart were the words _slut, whore, bitch. _

I was in the tent with Cato's arms around me. He was sleeping, I could tell by his shallow breaths. I had finally had enough; I was going to go finish off Shelby. I started to get up, but Cato pulled me back down. "Don't Clove, you're just going to cause more complications." He leaned closer and whispered, "stay". The way he said it sent shivers down my spine.

"Fine" I pulled myself closer to him, nestling my head in his neck. I closed my eyes and was welcomed by a nightmare.

_"You killed her" a voice said. It was black. Entirely black. "You killed that girl" I tried to see, but I was surrounded by darkness. I finally saw a small trace of light above me. I looked up and then my vision went fuzzy. I was under water. _

_The thought terrified me, and I tried to swim to the surface, but my arms were constrained. I was drowning. I tried to take a breath, but my lungs flooded with water. So this was how it was going to end. I was going to drown._

"Clove, wake up!" Cato, obviously frustrated, kicked me.

"What the hell?!" I kneed him in the gut.

"You were having a nightmare." I finally noticed it was dark. Cato stood up, making me instantly cold. "It's time to go" he said. I was glad too, I needed something to get my mind off the nightmare.

We all congregated outside the tents. The bodies from the blood bath were gone. They must have taken them when we were asleep, and Shelby was still tied to the post, glaring at me with those bright blue eyes through her hair. "Are we taking her?" Glimmer asked, obviously sensing my discomfort. Peeta had been quiet the whole time. He just sat and twirled a ring on his finger.

"What good is she going to do tied up. If we're not taking her, she's going to have to stay behind and watch the supplies. You'll have to untie her either way." Damn Peeta's logic. Marvel shrugged and cut the ropes that connected her to the post. She stood up, rubbing her wrists and then looked away from me.

"I'll stay behind" she said. I knew what she was doing. She was trying to make everyone think she was okay now, when in truth, she'd kill me in my sleep. We all packed up some water and our weapons and started off into the woods.

I was the first to spot the spoke rising in the east. I pointed to it in the distance and the group smiled, nodding. We hiked off towards it, Cato in the front, me behind him, and the rest of the group clustered a bit farther back. I took this as a chance to slide my hand into Cato's.

I saw him smile slightly and squeeze my hand lightly. We walked silently, alternating squeezing each other's hands. When we finally reached the fire source, the girl tribute from 8. She sat by the fire, desperately trying to warm herself. Our whole group spread out around her, concealed by trees. Cato snapped a twig and she looked up with an expression of pure fear.

Marvel, who was across from me, snapped another twig. I stepped out from behind the tree and leaned against its trunk. I twirled my knife in my palm. "Pity" I said, and she turned around abruptly, her whole body began to shake. I walked closer and traced the features on her face with my knife. "You're pretty… Too bad you didn't have the brains to match it." I cut shallowly on both of her cheeks. She was obviously the type not to scream. I would enjoy breaking her.

"Where's the rest of your alliance?" she asked, cocking her head to the side, trying to hide her fear. Then the rest of the group stepped out from behind their trees.

"You didn't think I'd come alone, did you" I laughed. Cato stepped forward, signaling for me to step off. I stepped back and watched him shove the sword into her torso. She finally screamed and it was oddly satisfying. And horrible. I was enjoying this. I was a horrible person. I ran forward and pleaded Cato to draw his sword out of her.

"Clove? What the hell?" He asked.

"Please Cato. Stop" I kept asking. He finally withdrew his sword, but the girl still fell to the ground, dead.

…

We walked onward, everyone eyeing me suspiciously. I had no idea what happened to me. I just freaked out. "Shouldn't we have heard the cannon by now?" Glimmer asked. Everyone stopped, thinking about it. "Hey, if she's dead there should have been the cannon" she put up her hands defensively as everyone looked at her quizzically.

"That's not possible, I killed her myself" Cato said sternly. "If she's not dead now, she will be soon."

"Someone needs to go back and check"

"I told you, she's dead" Cato was getting angry.

"I'll do it" Peeta finally interjected. I was surprised, but he walked back towards where she had been. A couple second later there was the sound of the cannon.

"Dammit" Cato cursed under his breath. When Peeta returned, he just looked at us all.

"Let's go" he persisted.

**No cliff hanger D: but don't hate. REVIEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW**


	14. War

**So I had homeocoming this weekend so I couldn't really write. Im on my iPthere's if there's any weird words blame autocorrect. And I'm sorry if it seems shorter, I didn't have Microsoft word ttowel me how many owes it was :**P

Chapter 14

War

I heard the scream from a mile away. The scream of an adolescent. He scream of a teenage boy. My heart literally stopped and I jerked awake. That's when I noticed, Cato wasn't next to me. I looked around frantically but all There was was the pitch blackness and cool dew of the early dawn.

We had stopped by a stream that night, it had gotten late and everyone was tired. We had all fallen asleep at the same time and Cato was on first watch.

I almost screamed his name, but I stopped myself. There was no need to attract more enemies than we probably already had amongst the alliance. It was at this time that I truly felt lane. Cato was gone, it was cold and dark, and everyone was asleep. I didn't want to wake them up, for fear they would get angry, but I felt alone. I was the only one awake. Or so I thought. Until I heard a rustle.

"Daddy, no!" I screamed. But it was too late. He shut the door and locked it tight. I felt helpless and vulnerable in that cold dark cellar. But it was here that I finally realized I would need to learn to help myself. I changed my frame of mind in that cellar. I changed it to be impenetrable. I trained myself not to get hurt. And I started by figuring out how to get out of the cellar.

I had been in the cellar before, with my mother, so I knew where a couple things were and I could probably find them without light. I shuffled around, sliding my hand across the table that I knew sat in the middle of the cellar. Something sharp hit my hand and I knew I had found what I was looking for. But at a cost.

The blood was already streaming from my wrist where the blade had hit it, but I did my best to ignore the pain. I ripped a cloth from my shirt, tied it around my wrist and continued to pick up the knife. I felt my way back to he door and searched for the handle. When I finally found it, I looked for the screws. I found the first one and used the knife to loosen them. Finally, when they were all lose, I gave to handle a mighty yank and I came free. I then continued to kick down the door until the warmth and light of the house met me once again. And there stood my dad, scoffing.

"Who's there" I asked, trying not to let my voice get too high. The rustling continued. I reached for one of my knives, careful not to cut myself, and stood up. Then I saw a dark, round head poke out of the brush. I was the tall burly man from 11. The one I had dreamt chasing me. I saw a slightly insane s,irk appear on his face as he finally stepped all the way out of the brush.

What if he had killed Cato? What if I was next? I tried to ignore the questions that kept asking for my attention and focused on the most dangerous matter at hand. Him.

He was about to lunge forward until There was another scream. It was more distinct this time. I could tell it was a small boy, probably 11 or so. It wasn't Cato and I gave a sigh of relief. As the screaming got closer, some of my alliance members began to wake up and the big boy from 11 jogged off.

When the screaming I ally reached us I saw that It was the boy from 3. And gripping him by the neck was Cato. "Dammit will you just stop screaming!" He threw the boy at my feet.

"What do you want me to do with this?" I asked.

"This kid. He says he can take the mines from the plates. Dig them up and put them around our supplies. He says he can protect our supplies" Cato nudged the boy with his foot. "Right?"

"Y-y-yes" the boy stammered. I smirked. It was brilliant!

"Guess hat means we have to head back soon" I said.

"Let's go" Glimmer replied, standing up and beginning to collect the supplies we had brought. We made our way back to the cornucopia. Cato, all the while, holding the boy by his collar. Shelby just kept glaring at me as though to bore holes in my head. I did my best to ignore her.

By then it was almost light. The sun was peaking just above the trees. That's when the fire started to hit. I was in the back of the group and they had just made it past the tree line. I, on the other hand, was still in the woods when the fire sprang. I heard a loud crack, a pop, and a thud. Next ting I knew I was pinned to the ground by a fallen tree, unable to see anything, and everything around me was on fire. Every breath I took felt like a war, waging between smoke and oxygen. You know that saying "their life lashed before their eyes"? Well it happened to me.

I saw my mom, my mothers death, my father abuse, the day I met Cato, the first date, the car wreck, being locked in the cellar, Cato leaving and my fathers abuse worse than ever. Then I saw the present. I saw us at the reaping, on the train, in the training center, my suicide attempt, and he games.

Then I saw things I had never seen before. Things like Cato and it's wedding, me walking down the streets of District two with two children following quickly at my heels. I saw myself growing old, saw Cato growing old beside me. Saw my children growing old, saw my grandchildren getting bigger. Saw myself after Cato passed. Saw the day that I, myself left the world. The images faded in one big smoke cloud.

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	15. Luck Had Nothing To Do With It

**Happy Sunday! Sorry I didn't write earlier, I went hunting Friday night-Saturday morning so I didn't have any internet L (don't hate just because I hunt) and then Saturday I went to a Jake Owen concert and got home at 12 (so on Saturday I was awake for 20 hours and I didn't want to stay up later to write)**

**SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I hope you don't hate me for not updating recently, and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Don't forget to REVIEW!**

Chapter 15

Luck Had Nothing To Do With It

I was swimming in the warm tropics, not a care in the world. The water lapped at my side as I stared up at the puffy white clouds. The water was pleasantly warm, until I remembered how I had gotten here. "Cato!" I shouted, the clouds turned to dark clouds and the water began to boil, singing at my skin. I closed my eyes.

When I opened them again I was in a shallow creek. The mixture of cool water and mud on my skin lessened the pain of my burning flesh. I couldn't see anyone from the alliance, but I could hear their muffled shots. I did my best to crawl out of the smoke cloud and I collapsed in the field. "Shit" Cato said, fighting back tears. "Clove, wake up. Don't close your eyes, please. Stay with me." I caught a glimpse of a single tear rolling down his cheek.

"I'm here Cato. I'm not leaving" I croaked before my body until a hammering cough took control of my lungs.

"Get water! Now!" I heard Glimmer scream. There was a series of scuffles and then Peeta splashed cold water on my face. I reached out for the bottle and began drinking it. Marvel rushed over with some medicine and everyone began searching for my injuries. I had a burn on my right side and a gash across my left eyebrow. "Clove, we have to lift up your shirt a bit so I can patch this up" Glimmer said.

With careful fingers, Cato peeled the fabric of the ruin shirt off my side. I heard him hold back a hiss. It obviously wasn't good. "Wait" I said. Cato froze. "Where's Shelby?" Everyone exchanged glances with one another. "Where's Shelby?" I insisted. Cato busied himself with my shirt again.

"When the tree fell on you" Marvel began, seeing as no one else was talking. "She tried to keep Cato from going in after you. He- well. He got angry and-"

"And snapped her neck" Peeta finished. Cato was gritting his teeth and pulled the cloth a bit more forcefully. I bit my lip to refrain from screaming. Cato noticed my pain and began to work a bit gentler. When the shirt was finally up enough to see the extent of the wound, Glimmer slathered some cream on it. She then wrapped clean cloth around it several times. I had limited mobility, but at least it covered the unsightly wound.

"The bandages are waterproof, so if you want to go wash off it won't hurt anything"

Marvel offered me a couple pain pills, and I was finally able to stand up. Peeta handed me a fresh set of clothes and I proceeded down to the lake to get dressed. I hadn't been to the lake yet, but it definitely made me uneasy. I could almost imagine my mother's body, lifeless, at the bottom of it. "It's okay" Cato whispered, coming up behind me. "No one will get you while I'm here" I nodded slightly. He took my hand and walked us into the water.

"Cato, I love you"

"I know."

"I just thought I needed to tell you. You know- before I die"

"Don't think like that Clove" he helped me get all the mud out of my hair.

…

"Why don't you just stay behind, I don't want you getting hurt"

"I'm fine, I want to go." I insisted, packing up my things and pulling on my pack, trying my best not to show the fact that I was hurting.

"Okay" Cato knew he couldn't stop me from going. We all packed up our supplies and then headed off into the woods.

The first tribute we found was the girl from 9. She sat by another body. The body of the boy from 9. "I'm sorry" she whispered to the boy. "I'm sorry Taylor" my heart grew heavy as she began to cry. Marvel stepped forward and, thankfully, made her death quick. She was dead in a matter of seconds.

"Come on guys" Cato said, beginning to walk off. I pretended to follow them before turning back and shutting the boy and girl's eyes for them. I took both of their hands and interlocked them in each other's.

"I'm sorry" I whispered, before jogging after the alliance. They were all walking down a rocky path when we came to a stream. That's when I saw her. The girl on fire. Katniss, swimming in the stream, obviously burnt from the fire. "There she is!" I shouted. The alliance all zeroed in on her. All but Peeta. He pretended he didn't see her as we sprinted after her.

She noticed pretty quick that we were after her, and for an injured tribute, she still ran fast. She sprinted off into the woods again, jumping over fallen trees and such. We caught up to her where she had climbed up in a tree. Cato, obviously in the killing mode, decided to pursue her, but I knew as soon as he grabbed one of the lower branches, it would snap. I watched as my theory came true and Cato dropped to the ground.

Glimmer desperately tried to shoot arrows at her, but she didn't do too well. Cato got frustrated and took the bow and began shooting at Katniss. "Maybe you should throw the sword" Katniss smirked.

"Let's just wait her out" Peeta said, "she's got to come down sometime."

"Fine" Cato grumbled. "Someone start a fire." The thing that bothered me most after that moment was that I could kill Katniss. I could have climbed that tree. She could have been done for, if not for my injuries.

We made a fire and then sat by it, and after a while it was my turn to be on watch. I threw knives at a lizard I had found on a rock. Katniss was in the tree, already asleep, so I figured I had nothing to be on watch for as my side was beginning to stiffen and I popped a couple more pain pills. Then, the world went black and I slipped into a dreamless sleep.

There was a dull poke at a spot on my body. Then another, and more and more. That's when I fully woke up. These weren't dull pokes, they were searing, painful stings. Tracker jacker stings. I screamed as loud as I could, trying to wake up the rest of the alliance. They all woke up groggily and then jumped to their feet, running towards the lake.

The one person that didn't wake up was Glimmer. She was a hard sleeper, and when she began to open her eyes, the tracker jacker stings made them swell shut. "Help" she tried to scream. I couldn't bare leaving her to die a slow painful death. I slit her throat.

"I'm soo sorry" I yelled after her before running off. I had to find my way to the lake. The stings were already taking effect. I couldn't see the ground below me, and the woods all swirled into a blob of green and brown. The last conscious thing that happened to me was that I had tripped and landed on my burnt side. I let out a scream for help, but the tracker jacker venom took control of my brain and the world was swallowed into darkness.

**SOOO REVIEW PWEEEEEEEEES! **

**IMPORTANT NOTE:**

**About the other stories I'm going to write, I'm going to start one after this one's over and then do the sequal to this one. So look out for them, I'll post more news through this fan fic**

**The lovers of district four story is called ****_Only The Lonely_**

**and dim thinking about sequal titles, so send me your suggestions**

**(I haven't started either, I just want to give you guys a heads up on them)**


	16. Timmy

**Hello there! So I guess you should expect next chapters to be posted on Sundays since hunting season started and next weekend I might be going to the beach (one last hurrah before getting fully involved in school), but I have Friday off so I might write Thursday night. BEAR WITH ME PWEES! But anyway, here's is the next chapter! Lota of ppl skip Clove's visions, but I wanted to include them. **

Chapter 16

Timmy

The effects of the tracker jacker venom were horrific. Images in my mind were so vivid and real, I'm not sure I ever recovered from it. The neurological toll it took on my body wrecked my self-of-steam not to mention the fact that I had nightmares every night following the account. The images were like this:

I saw Cato and I. sitting on the cornucopia, both scared and breathing heavily, but with a happy twinkle in our eyes. Then Claudius Templesmith's voice came on, but I couldn't make out the words. Before I knew it, Cato lurched forward, shoving his sword through my torso, all while a sinister smile played on his lips. "Bitch" he murmured, twisting the blade.

This vision wasn't like a dream. Not like one where if you die you wake up. It was so real. I felt the warmth escape my body, the sword being twisted and the warm blood running down from the wound. I felt the breath being squeezed out of my lungs. I saw the life fade and watched as a star galloped across the sky, all while I was dying. Then the vision faded into a new one.

I was in a court room. A court room back home. I could tell from all the peacekeepers that were training to go out to districts. The audience was small. There was a family of blondes, a young boy holding a child, and my father. The next person I saw made my limbs weak. It was Glimmer.

But not normal Glimmer. Not blonde, pretty Glimmer. It was Glimmer, but swollen by tracker jacker stings. She looked at me slowly. I couldn't tell if she looked at me with anger, or confusion, but then the judge spoke.

"Clove Eddings is being prosecuted for the murder of Glimmer Smith." She chuckled a hearty laugh.

"No, no! I didn't kill her! I saved her." I tried to say, but the judge dropped her mallet, producing a loud crack. I felt the cold metal close around my wrists. "NO, I didn't do it!" The courtroom faded, but my hands were still cuffed. I was in the dark woods of the arena. I heard rustling and tried to reach for my knife, but I couldn't reach it. Cato ran out of the bushes, towards me.

"Run! Run Clove god-Dammit!" he scream, and ran past me. I couldn't move as a black figure pounced on me and pinned me to the ground. I kicked and thrashed, but that couldn't stop the figure from growling and snapping at my limbs. It tried to bite me, but I grabbed its neck tight and I heard a low feral growl from it. When I looked closely, it had her eyes. My mother's eyes.

I had let it distract me too long, the mutation with my mother's eyes escaped my grip and continued to tear my body apart. The searing pain caused me to scream as loud as I could. I closed my eyes, wishing the visions would go away.

When I opened my eyes, I was in a white room. Once again, my arms were restricted, in a straight jacket. I cried for help. Then, as I was losing hope, the door opened and in stepped my father. He chuckled and kicked me repeatedly.

I finally opened my eyes. I was in the tent, my whole body aching and my throat dry. Not to mention, I was shivering. It was dark outside, probably early dawn. I took a deep breath. "it was just a dream" I said to myself. Then I felt the tent move, a great shape beside me moaned slightly.

"Clove is that you? Are you awake?" Cato sat up, and I cowered into the corner of the tent.

"Stay away from me"

"Clove? It's me. It's Cato" he leaned closer to hug me, but I kicked him back and launched myself out of the tent. A couple seconds later he poked his head back out. "Clove? What the hell?"

"Don't touch me!" I screamed.

"Shhh Clove, you're gonna wake up all the tributes!" Cato motioned for me to be quite. Marvel finally heard my distressed cries and jumped out of his tent.

"What's wrong?"

"Cato, just stay back!" I yelled.

"Okay, Clove I just think you need to sit down for a little bit" Marvel grabbed my shoulders, but I quickly countered by flipping him onto his back on the ground. I leaned closer to him.

"Don't touch me. Nobody mess with me" I growled before angrily taking off towards the woods.

I wasn't sure where I was going, I just kept walking. I finally found a small log to sit on and cry. I couldn't take it anymore. It was too much. The Capitol had finally broke me. I heard a rustle, but I didn't bother looking up.

"Just kill me quick, please" I asked, but instead of being killed, I heard a reply.

"I won't kill you, I promise" a little boy said. I looked up and saw a twelve year old. The boy from 3. "I'm Timmy" he outstretched his hand to shake mine. I smiled, because for once, I was thankful for my forgetfulness. If I had brought my knives, I would have felt inclined to kill Timmy. I'm glad I didn't kill him, because he was strangely polite for a boy in the arena.

"Nice to meet you Timmy" I shook his hand in return. Timmy slid next to me on the log.

"What's your name?" he swung his legs back and forth.

"Clove"

"Clove Eddings?" he asked. I nodded slightly as he reached into his backpack and grabbed something. "I found this when you were asleep at the creek. When the trackers jackers stung you. I took it because I thought it was food, but it wasn't." he handed me a silver parachute.

"Thank you Timmy" I said.

"Are you gonna open it?"

"Not yet, I want to talk to you some more" I smiled warmly.

"You're nice" he laughed, but then his stomach gave a hollow growl.

"Come on, let's get you some food." I started to walk back towards camp before turning around and seeing him still on the log. "Are you coming?"

"Well, Miss, I really think you should open the parachute. It's very important. I won't go with you until you open it."

"Okay, if you insist" I laughed. I pressed the button that caused the parachute to open. A piece of paper fell out that said:

_Dear Clove, _

_If you are reading this, you're still alive. Congratulations. I wanted to give you some advice. First of all, I advise you leave Cato soon. You need to go off on your own so it doesn't end up just the two of you. And, if you let him down hard, he might just kill himself already! So you don't have to worry about killing him. Also, every night, during your watch, you need to take some food and put it in your pack. Keep adding it gradually so nobody suspects anything. That way, you'll have enough food when you decide to leave camp. _

_-E_

_P.S. The population of District 2 got angry at your father at a public showing of The Hunger Games when he said you could die for all he cared. Apparently District 2 is very fond of you. Your father was killed in a fight against a couple boys from the training center on your honor. _

**REVIEW PWEES thanks for all the previous reviews. It really tears me up when guests review and I cant reply to them cuz I want to personally thank them! So get an account people so I can thank you!**

**_AND TO ALL MY FAITHFUL FOLLOWERS I HAVE A STORY RECOMMENDATION FOR YOU. THIS GIRL IS A REALLY GOOD WRITER AND HAS A GOOD STORY AND WANTS MORE FOLLOWERS, YOU SHOULD READ: s/8580390/1/I-ve-Loved-and-I-ve_Lost _**


	17. Lost

**Turns out, I DIDN'T GO TO THE BEACH so here I am with the next chapter. Thanks for all the reviews guys and emma, IM GLAD MY WRITING BROUGHT YOU TO TEARS even though crying isn't really a good thing. Im just glad someone felt emotion through my writing! :P**

Chapter 17

Lost

Timmy and I walked back to the camp in silence. He kept prodding me with questions. "Hey Clove, where ya from? Where we goin' Clove? What's your favorite food Clove?" I guess he just liked saying my name, because with every question he asked, he added my name in. We finally reached the cornucopia.

"Is that where we're goin' Clove?" he asked, hooking his arm in mine.

"Sure is Timmy" I sighed and closed my eyes, afraid to face Cato and Marvel.

"What's the matter Clove?"

"Nothing, c'mon, let's go get you some food" I smiled down at him. He nodded in agreement, rubbing his stomach pitifully. We rounded the corner of the cornucopia and I found Cato and Marvel sitting by a fire in silence. Cato heard my footsteps, but couldn't see me in the dark.

"Clove? Is that you?" He stood up, gripping his sword.

"Yeah" I stepped forward enough where the fire would illuminate my face hoping Cato would see Timmy. Instead, he heard Timmy's scuffling footsteps behind me.

"Who's with you?" Cato asked, a bit more darkly. I took Timmy's hand and brought him closer to the fire.

"I brought the boy from four with me." I smiled as Timmy jogged over to the fire and sat himself next to Marvel, who just looked down at him, wide eyed.

"Excuse me mister, it's not polite to stare" Timmy said to Marvel.

"Clove, can I talk to you?" Cato tugged my arm but I quickly pulled it back. We walked farther away from the fire, but we were still close enough to see Marvel and Timmy. Marvel offered Timmy an apple. "Clove, he's not a stray dog. We can't keep him."

"But Cato! He was starving! I couldn't leave him! Why can't you ever just let me be happy?!" I yelled. But the last part just slipped out.

"Never let you be happy? I thought you were happy Clove" he looked at me quizzically. "Well, about as happy as you can be in a fight to the death."

"I just- I don't want to fight Cato. I don't want to argue. I just want to enjoy the time I have left on this earth, and if you and your raging temper are going to get in my way, then I think we should break up." I was surprised by my words. Not surprised because I didn't mean what I said, because I did. Surprised that I said them so factually. I said them so harshly that I thought I caught a glimpse of a tear.

"If it's what you want. I just want you to be happy. Even when it's not with me." At that moment, I remembered that this Cato had done nothing to me. It was the Cato from the venom that poisoned my mind. It was that Cato that made me hate Cato.

"I'm sorry Cato. I- I don't know anything anymore. It seems everything I do is wrong. I thought in a fight to the death there were no rules. But I've made my own rules. And one of them is that I can't let someone get in the way of me winning." I slipped the ring off my finger. "even if that means pushing the ones closest to me away" I dropped it in his hand and walked back to the fire. "C'mon Timmy, you and me can sleep in our own tent."

He smiled warmly up at Marvel and slid into the tent. "I'll be in there in a second" I said.

"He's cute" Marvel laughed slightly.

"Yeah, you don't mind if he stays with us?" I asked.

"No, he could be helpful. He showed me this one idea he had. He said if he had explosives in this arena, he could protect the supplies. He said he's really good with explosives."

I laughed. 12 year old, explosives? Not a good mix. But what Marvel had told me ignited a thought. "Marvel, do you think Timmy could reactivate the mines under the plates?"

"I dunno, probably" He said, finally catching on.

"Alright then. Tomorrow, we protect the supplies." I smiled to myself.

"Night Clove" Marvel said as I began to slip into the tent.

"Night" I mumbled. As I zipped up the tent, I caught a glimpse of Cato and his sword, running off into the woods. Maybe it was just a hallucination.

**I know, I know, short one. Sorry.**


	18. Busy Work

**Ok so i got a lot of reviews saying don't break apart Clato. well, its a bit of an inevitabe fact. its unrealistic to say they go through the hunger games without any issues. But dont worry, they wont stay apart forever. :P I have slight wrters block so sorry if this sucks**

****Chapter 18

Busy Work

Morning light came and the dew clung to everything I touched. Timmy was still fast asleep, huddled up in the corner of the tent. It was a precariously cold morning, so as I got out of the tent, I covered Timmy in my covers.

I stepped out of the tent and saw that the sun had barely rose. Marvel was still sleeping from what I could tell of the snoring coming from his tent, and Cato was- Cato. Where was Cato? I poked my head into his tent but his covers were untouched. Shit. Well he had to come back sometime, didn't he? I mean, he was trained as a career. He was trained to live off the supplies of the Cornucopia. He couldn't possibly go survive off in the woods. But the thought still bugged me.

I tried to busy myself as I waited for Cato to come back. I cleaned up the fire pit, fixed breakfast, and twiddled my thumbs. But I couldn't find anything to keep me busy, but luckily Timmy and Marvel came to my rescue.

Marvel stumbled out of his tent. "Good mornin'" he stretched. "Where's Cato?"

"I don't know" I mumbled. At that same moment, Timmy poked his head out. "what are you guys doing" he asked.

"Nothing" Marvel replied. Timmy stepped out of the tent and smiled.

"What are you doing standing there!? We better get to work, these mines won't dig up themselves!" Timmy beamed.

We spent most of the morning digging up the mines. It wasn't until 1 o'clock that Cato came back. He looked rough. His face a covered in dirt and his shirt was torn at parts, not to mention a new scar on his bicep.

"woah, dude what happened to you?" Marvel asked when he looked up from where he was digging.

"Not a damn thing" Cato growled, throwing his sword and pack on the ground. Timmy frowned slightly and watched Cato angrily stomp into his tent.

"I'll be back" Timmy got up and walked towards the tent.

"Timmy, I don't think that's a good idea"

"I'm fine, dont worry." i watched as he unzipped Cato's tent and began to talk to him. I couldn't hear what they were talking about, but Cato wasn't shouting, and that was a good sign.

When Timmy returned, Cato had gotten out of his tent and started to eat. "What'd you say?" Marvel asked.

"It's a secret."

"Not fair. I've been trying to get on that dude's good side for weeks now and this kid can do it in a couple minutes!?" Timmy giggled at Marvel's words.

"Trust me, it's not as easy as it seems" I smiled and went back to work.

Cato shortly came back over to the mines and began to dig them up. He didn't say a word, but I think he enjoyed getting his mind off of everything.

By the time we finished it was almost dark and we all retired to the fireside. Marvel was warming up some meat we had found in the cornucopia while Timmy was off reactivating the mines. I sat by the fire and watched the flames closely, avoiding eye contact with anyone. Cato was there to, across the fire from me, star gazing.

...

The next morning, I stepped out of my tent and found Cato standing by a newly lit fire. No body else was awake. Shit. I should have remembered he was an early riser. By then he had already seen me, so I forced myself to walk past him. I went to the pyramid of supplies we had made and went across the spots we had marked. I jumped to each one cautiously. One. Phew. Two. Where was the spot? Oh shit too late I jumped. Thank god it didn't go off. One more. OKay, three. I reached up on the pyramid and grabbed the sack of apples. I pulled out one and placed it back on the box.

I walked down to the lake side and proceeded to wash off my apple with water. I was about to leave when I noticed thick columns of smoke rising in the east. I ran back to camp.

"Hey! Guys! Looks there's a fire!"

"Alright guys, pack up, we got a job to finish!" Cato said gruffly. I packed up my backpack and knives and reported back to the campfire.

"I'm ready." Timmy said. Cato frowned slightly and then kneeled to Timmy's height.

"How about you stay behind and watch our supplies for us. If we take another person we just have to carry too many supplies" He said almost too fatherly. It almost made me cringe. Cato was not a caring person like that. Especially to little kids. The kids at the training center always bugged him about me and someone would always end up at the hospital.

"Okay" I could see Timmy letting out a relieving sigh. He waved goodbye to us and we ran off towards the smoke stack. When wee finally reached it, we found no one there.

"what the hell" Cato mumbled. At the same time, I saw another smoke stack begin to rise in the west.

"Someone's going around and lighting smoke stacks. Look's like they're going west. Someone needs to go directly across, maybe they can beat them to the next stack." I said. i had seen this tactic before; in last year's games.

"I will" Marvel offered. Shit. that meant I was stuck with Cato. But Marvel just dashed off towards the next stack. Cato and I sat down on a couple logs in complete silence.

"Clove?" Cato's voice broke slightly.

"Yeah?"

"I just want you to know-" his words were cut of by an earsplitting explosion.

**So please review and im sorry but my writers block makes my writing SUCK so bear with me. hopefully it'll be gone soon! **


	19. A Scare, A Snap, A Hatred

**Hey ya'll here's the next one**

Chapter 19

A Scare, A Snap, A Hatred

Shit. That was the only thing that ran through my mind as we bolted through the woods, back towards the cornucopia. After the explosion, we had sat there in a daze. It wasn't until Cato had regained his conscious mind that his pupils dilated (the way they do when he gets angry) and a thin dark line appeared above his eyebrow (something that always happened when he was furious) that he stood up and bolted for the Cornucopia. I ran close behind, trying to keep up with his long strides. When I reached the cornucopia, the first thing I noticed was the star mark where the mines had blown up.

I walked to the spot where our supplies used to be stacked, subconsciously hoping all the mines had already gone off. But it didn't matter anyway; without supplies, we were dead. I searched for supplies that hadn't gotten destroyed but found nothing. Then I remembered; Timmy was by the explosion. What if he had set it off? What if Timmy was dead?

"Timmy!" I shouted.

"Yeah" a pitiful voice croaked in reply, followed by a couple coughs. Timmy was covered in dirt. He didn't even make it off the ground before Cato rushed forward at him.

"Cato, c'mon. I'm sure it wasn't his fault" I said in a low voice.

"You! You did this! How are w e supposed to survive now? We have no supplies anymore! This is all your fault!"

"Cato, calm down"

"What are we going to do now!? How do you expect one of us to get home if we have no food!?" I could see Cato balling his fists, signaling he was about to do something he was going to regret.

"Cato!"

"How is Clove going to make it home!?" he shouted. That caught me off guard. Cato still wanted me to be the one to get home. That had been his plan all along. I would have gone up to him and hugged him, sobbing in his arms at that moment, if not for what he did next.

His meaty hands shot at Timmy's head and wrapped around his tiny skull. He positioned his hands at a lethal angle and gave Timmy's neck a bone crunching snap. The sound of the little boy's neck snapping rang in my ears as I watched his small body collapse on the ground. His canon blasted.

"NO!" I screamed, getting on the ground next to Timmy. "Timmy, no! Wake up! Please! Don't leave me!" I don't really know why I kept persisting. I guess when someone you care about dies, your first impulse is disbelief. Your first impulse is to convince yourself the person will "stay with you". I knew that whole time that my attempts were futile, I just didn't want to believe that someone I had treated as my son had just been killed by the person that acted as his father.

I stood up, rage shaking my body. I looked straight at Cato, who seemed fully under control. He actually seemed a bit shocked. "Oh- Clove."" he murmured "Did I-" I motioned to Timmy's snapped neck.

"I can't believe you! You're a monster! I can't believe I ever loved you!" I searched for something to throw at him, but considering all of our supplies had been blown sky high, I ended up just collapsing on the ground.

"Clove" his feet shuffled forward.

"I hate you!" I screamed. "I hate you" I said. "I never want to see you again"

Cato nodded slowly and walked off into the woods, kicking a stone. Shortly after he left I heard to canons. _Good. That bastard deserves to die. _

I figured I had to leave Timmy eventually so a hovercraft could take him. I closed his eyes, folded his hands over his chest and whispered "I'm sorry" to him. When I folded his hands, a tiny shell fell from his hands. I shoved it in my pocket -to remember him by- and kissed him on the forehead.

It's not the first time someone I love died.

_Dad was drunk. Not something uncommon after the past couple weeks. It was becoming a routine for him. And, since he was drunk, it was only natural that I be stuck with the task of meeting the Capitol train and retrieving my mother's body. Her family hadn't yet made it to district two. _

_See, my mother was from District 4. My father was working as a peacekeeper there when they met, so her family had a long trek from district 4. _

_The train squeaked as it slowed down in front of me. The door slid open slowly. That was really the first time I got a taste of the Capitol. When the doors opened, the unfamiliar smell of the capitol spilled out onto the sidewalk. I caught a glimpse of the luxury of the train; the chandeliers, the food, the furniture. Then there was a bulky box in the middle. My mother's coffin. _

_They always decorated the coffin based on the profession of your district. District two, the peacekeeper district, was a broad category, so the coffin was just a plain ivory box. A few Capitol attendants rolled to coffin out for me and then left. Just like that, I was left at a train station alone with the body of my mother. I wasn't sure where to take it. It would be a bit odd to keep her in the house. I decided to take her to the hospital; they had to have a morgue. _

_I rolled the coffin down the uneven paved streets and when I made it to the hospital, the woman was shocked to see me. "Excuse me, my mom needs a place to stay the night." I patted the coffin lightly. _

_"Um. Alright." she asked me a couple questions before taking over the coffin with an odd smile. "I'll take good care of her."" she said. _

_"Thank you" I was about to leave when I stopped in my tracks. "Excuse me miss, can I have a look?"_

_"Uh, sure" the nurse obviously looked unamussed. I lifted the lid of the coffin just enough to cast a light across her face. She looked so at peace. She looked calm and I must admit, her mouth was in a slight smile. _

**please review D': im crying right now**


	20. Nights Alone

**Hey ya'll I might post chapters over Thanksgiving break, so be ready for lots of chapters real soon!**

****Chapter 20

Nights Alone

There was nothing left at the camp. No food, no supplies; just the things that were in my pack. I figured there was no point in staying at the cornucopia any longer, so I wondered off into the woods, subconsciously drifting to the log where I had met Timmy. I decided to lay down a sleeping bag next to the log.

The night was cold and lonely. Not to mention the fact I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes I could hear the hollow snap of Timmy's neck. I figured I just wasn't going to sleep that night, so I set up a fire at camp with the last match I had. It's not like it mattered if anyone found me. I was screwed either way. So I just sat, sharpening my knives carelessly, cutting my hands in the process.

I wasn't sure if it was just my imagination, or what, but I heard Claudius Templesmith's voice booming throughout the arena. "Tributes! The past rule that only one standing tribute can be crowned victor has been dismissed. Now, two tributes from the same district may be crowned victors. Good luck, and Happy Hunger Games!"

If Cato was still alive, then I had a chance of escaping the arena, but that meant he'd escape with me. I knew they brought this rule along so that they could force us back together, but what Cato did was unforgivable in my terms. I figured, if he was still alive, and wanted to live, he'd come find me. Then I could have a fair shot of killing him.

Yet, there was a small thought in the back of my mind. One that had been pushed aside when things started going wrong. The thought was from my old, lovestruck self. The thought that we could make it out alive and live happily ever after.

I should have known it wasn't going to be that simple. It never was. But as I sat and stared at the flamed licking towards the sky, I was caught off guard when a large silhouette came crashing through the woods and landed at the foot of my sleeping bag. The figure huddled close to the fire. That's when I noticed the chiseled face of Cato. Just my luck.

"What part of I never want to see you again don't you understand?"

"But the announcement-"

"I don't care what the damn announcement said. I'm never going to forgive you Cato" he pursed his lips and rubbed his hand over the fire.

"It doesn't matter anyway. I wasn't actually looking for you, I just saw a fire." the breeze blew in reply. "It's cold as fuck out here"

"That's why they gave us a jacket, dumbass."

"that's why they gave us a jacket dumbass" he tried to imitate my voice.

"Are you mocking me?"

"Are you mocking me?"

"Shutup"

"Shu-"

"Goodnight!" I said angrily and rolled over in my sleeping bag. I closed my eyes tightly.

"Goodnight" I could feel his hot breath on my ear as he slid into the sleeping bag next to me, and I was too exhausted to stop him. I could tell he had a smug smile plastered on his face.

"Don't smile"

"Damn you're good"

"Don't flip me off either" I could tell he was.

"How do you do that?"

"I said goodnight" he slid back into the covers.

...

Cato's snoring woke me up, but the next thing I noticed was the heat. It was way to hot. I guess I forgot how warm it was in one of those sleeping bags with another person. "Cato" I elbowed him in the gut,m noticing that his arms were around me.

"Ow, what the fuck?" I moaned. "You didn't used to wake me up like that" I ignored the comment and got out of the sleeping bag.

"Get up"

"No" he pulled the sleeping bag over his head. I picked up the foot of the sleeping bag and drug it across the ground, over rocks and roots. "Ow, ow, ow! Not fair"

"Get up!" I kicked him, and I must admit, it was very satisfying.

"I'm up!" he emerged from the sleeping bag, hands held high in surrender. I began to pack up the things.

"We have to get going, we let the fire burn all night. Someone's going to come find us"

"You said we, does that mean we're a team?" he asked hopefully.

"Whatever Cato, just help me pick up this shit"

"Pushy, aren't we. Can we have breakfast at least?"

"Find some damn food first" I replied. That's when he remembered that we couldn't eat leisurely anymore. He was going to have to ration our food.

"Well we can try a swing at hunting animals. It can't be much different than hunting people, and the best part is,; animals can't fight back"

'Fine" I tossed him his sword. "Show me how it's done, Oh great one" I crossed my arms and smirked.

"I will" he stomped off into the woods and left me to pick up the supplies. About an hour later, he came back, dirt all over his body and plants in his hair.

"Find anything?" I placed my hands on my hips, the way I knew bothered him. Because he knew I was teasing him.

"I saw a deer" he dropped his sword and spit in the fire pit. "The damn thing attacked me"

**HAHA I FOOOLED YOU WITH THE CHAPTER TITLE! So you all complained about me breaking up clato, dont hate, appreciate. Becuase now we get a second chance! Please review XP**


	21. Home

**Happy Thanksgiving Break!**

Chapter 21

Home

"Tributes! I would like to invite you to a feast! Now, this is no ordinary feast. You all need something desperately. The feast begins at the cornucopia tomorrow by daylight" Claudius Templesmith, my new best friend's voice, came booming through the arena.

"You hear that Cato?" I called to him. He poked his head around a tree where he was busy setting up a trap.

"Course I heard it, I'm not deaf" He smirked. "But what do we need?"

"I don't know, but whatever it is, it's going to be really valuable. And we can kill some tributes at the cornucopia. It's a win win"

"I guess" he turned back to his trap, but at the same time I heard a loud snap.

"What the fuck was that?" Cato turned back towards me with a big grin on his face, and in his hands was the unlucky squirrel that fell into Cato's trap.

"That, my friend, is dinner" by then, we had already relocated to a rocky creek. He placed the squirrel on the rocks and began skinning it. "I bet you those damn District 1's could never do this."

"Don't flatter yourself" I began to lay out my knives on the rocks and count them, making sure they were all there, minus the one Cato was using.

"C'mon. Admit it" he leaned over and whispered in my ear; his hot breath hitting my neck. "You're glad I found you" I just wanted to melt, but then again, the thought of Cato being so close to my neck. So close to his lethal killing spot; it bothered me. I jerked away and returned to counting my knives.

"like I said, Cato; don't flatter yourself."

"Are you trying to play hard to get?"

"I dunno am I?" I said in a smart ass way.

"Yeah, you definitely are" he went back to the squirrel. "But it's all good. Take all the time you need" he smirked to himself again. We worked silently, and I must admit, I snuck a couple furtive glances at him as he worked. When we finished cooking, eating, and cleaning up the fire, I slid into my sleeping bag. It wasn't long before Cato slid in too, and just to annoy him, I pressed my cold feet against his legs.

"Damn Clove!" he shuddered. "You're cold! Here, let me warm you up" he used to do this all the time. He'd joke like that and tickle me. Yes, the big bad knife thrower from district two is ticklish, so what? So, as I had expected, he started to tickle me.

"Ow- Cato! Ha-ha! Stop! Cato!" I was on the verge of tears. It wasn't until he stopped tickling me that I realized I had ended up beneath him.

"Shhhhhhhh" he commanded all of the sudden, placing a hand over my mouth and looking around, like he had heard something. He finally looked me in the eyes closely. _Longingly_. He finally lowered his lips to mine. He hovered, a couple centimeters above my lips. I couldn't help myself any longer. I placed a hand behind his head and pressed his lips to mine.

He pulled away slightly, looked into my eyes, kissed me a second time, and then smiled. "What?" I asked.

"Goodnight" he laid back down beside me, much to my annoyance. I propped myself up on my elbow and looked at him closely. "What?" he asked.

"That's it?"

"It's only our first date" he smiled slightly and stretched his arms behind his head, giving a heavy sigh and allowing his eyes to close. I pulled myself closer to him and placed my head on his chest. This was where it was warm. This was where I belonged. This was home.

* * *

I woke up early. Like so early, the sun hadn't even come up. The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the cold. The cold; meaning the lack of Cato by my side. He was sitting by the creek, sharpening his sword. "Gonna sleep all day?" he asked mockingly.

"When does the feast start?" I stretched and crawled out of the sleeping bag and walked over to him. I took his sword and placed it on the ground, and I took it's place. I sat in his lap so that he could wrap his arms around me and keep me warm.

"Half an hour" he rested his lips on the top of my head. "I've been thinking a lot about our strategy, and since I sliced Lover Boy up pretty good and he's not dead yet, Fire girl is probably going to go in at the feast. I figure I'll go in after her and kill her and you look out for Thresh. He's our biggest threat."

"Cato, let me go in." I smiled slightly. "You against fire girl? She doesn't stand a chance. It feels like cheating"

"Since when do you care about cheating?" he laughed.

"Since I started to hate that bitch and decided I wanted to take her down myself"

"Okay, okay! Calm down. Fine, you go in. But, what if Thresh comes out? You've got no chance."

"Well you just be a good lookout then. I'm not passing up the opportunity to kill fire girl's sorry ass"

He frowned. "Okay. Just be careful."

"no need to worry about me" I said, jokingly flexing my arms. He flexed his arm in reply.

"I think I win"

"Whatever" he wrapped his arms back around me and squeezed me so tight, I'm sure my face turned purple. "Okay, okay! You win" I muttered.

* * *

"Got you're knives?" Cato asked, double checking.

"Yes"

"They sharp?"

"Always"

"Okay, now only wear what you need. You just need to run as fast as you can. Don't worry about taking any other packs or killing anyone, just get in and out."

"But, Cato! What's the fun if I don't get to kill Fire Girl" I whined like a little girl.

"Just trust me. I don't want you to get caught" _Caught? _I scoffed. Cato thought I would get caught!? He doubted me? That's what really sent me on edge. "Ready?"

"Yeah" I muttered. I'll show him, I thought. We hiked out to the edge of the field that the Cornucopia was on. When it was finally light enough to see, I spotted the bags. One with an 11, one with a twelve, one with a 5, and then the one with a 2. I prepared to run and I bounded off. Or tried to. Cato grabbed me from behind and yanked me back.

"What the hell?" I asked. He pointed at District 5. The girl had come out of nowhere and retrieved her bag.

"You can't be careless like that! You have to pay attention, Clove. You know what-" he took off his pack, "-Screw it. I'm going."

"No" I pushed him back and ran out into the field before he could stop me. Right as I was reaching the table, I saw Fire Girl. That was my chance. I turned towards her. She kept firing her puny arrows at me, but I deflected a couple with my knives. I finally got a chance to throw a knife at her. It grazed her forehead and, much to my satisfaction, began to spill blood. She fell on her back and I ran to her, jumping on her and restraining her arms with my legs.

"You think you're gonna get away this time? Forget it, District Twelve. We're going to kill you. Just like we did your pathetic little ally What was her name? The one that hopped around in trees? Rue? Well first Rue, then you and then we'll just let nature take care of lover boy. How does that sound?" I cooed, tracing her lips with the tip of my blade. She struggled against me, but it was no use. She was helpless. I raised the knife over my head and was about to bring it down when an almighty jerk pulled me from behind.

"You kill her? You kill that girl?" I found myself staring into the eyes of Thresh. His voice filled with blood thirsty threats.

"No- no! No" I stammered.

"You said her name! You kill her?" He yelled.

"Cato! CATO!" I wailed. I saw Cato sprinting into the field, but I knew he wouldn't reach me in time. With tears filling my eyes, I mouthed the words to him _I'm Sorry. _

The world spun and I felt a sharp pain on my skull. I could tell that My skull was shattered. It was only a matter of minutes before I bled out. It was a painfully slow way to die. So this was how it was going to end. With a rock. I always figured I would die somewhat like my mother did, but I found myself in the middle of a patch of grass, away from water.

"Clove! No... no no no! Clove, stay with me" Cato cried out to me. His image came in and out of focus as he grabbed my hand and put it to his lips. "Clove, please don't leave me" tears were streaming down his face. Something that I had never seen him do before. It was heartbreaking, but not as heartbreaking as what I asked of him next.

"Take one of the knives. Put me out of my misery" my voice quivered, yet sounded nothing like my actual voice. It sounded so distant.

"I- I can't do that Clove."

"P-p-please" I stammered, in between sighs. I blacked out.

* * *

It was like being in the fire again. My future flashed before my eyes. The last thing I saw was two kids running around. One was holding a knife. "I'm Clove!" he shouted. "Me too!" The other one shouted, tossing a knife, weakly. I was wondering the whole time, where's Cato? They're going to kill themselves! But I saw Cato in a slump on the floor, crying.

**I Would love you forever if you reviewed.**

**_BY THE WAY, MY NEW STORY IS OUT, ITS CALLED ONLY THE LONELY, HERES THE DESCRIPTION_  
**

**_Lacey never told her boyfriend she was pregnant. She never intended on it either, but as soon as they end up in the 70th annual Hunger Games together, he's going to find out eventually. There can only be one victor. Who will make it out? Clayton? Lacey? Or their baby?_**


	22. Close Calls

**So I'm really bored because I'm not going anywhere for break. So I figure I'll write some more. and, don't forget to check out my new story Only The Lonely**

** s/8721443/1/Only-The-Lonely**

Chapter 22

Close Calls

Everybody says that death will be peaceful. Well, let me be the first to tell you that dying is scary as fuck. So first you get this really messed up vision of the future. Like mine for example; if I'm dead in the future, then why did Cato have two kids? Does he find another girl in the future?

Then, right as you're watching the flashback, the world collapses. The ground beneath your feet disappears and you start falling into a dark abyss. You just keep falling, no stop, and the whole time you're flailing around thinking; _fuck, I'm dead._

Then there's a bright flash of light and you wake up in a white room. Well, for me it was more like a white tent. I was in great pain. My head pulsed, my body ached, and my lips were dry. Not to mention the fact that I was starving. The was a loud sound and Cato opened the tent.

"you're awake!" he almost cried.

"So is this the part in death where you get to say goodbye to the ones you love?"

"What? No. Clove, you're alive!" he kneeled next to me and pulled my hand from my head.

"That explains the pain" I tried to roll over, but ended up almost falling. Luckily, Cato caught me. That's when I realized I was on a cot. "Well if I'm alive, does this mean we're still in the arena?"

"Yes" that's something that hit me like a thousand rocks. I was still in the damn arena.

"Where'd you get all the shit?" I motioned to the tent and cot.

"People from the Capitol really love you. They sent the tent, the cot, meds that I'm still yet to use because they told me the medication only works on conscious patients."

"Well give it to me!" I was so frustrated. With everything.

"Okay, okay!" he left the tent and came back with a bottle of water, and a couple white pills. I took them slowly and already felt a million times better. But not well enough to stand up just yet.

"What else did we get?"

"A whole lot of food, water, more medication, a proper knife sharpener, and a gas bomb"

"A gas bomb? What the hell are we supposed to use that for?" he shrugged. "What about our bag from the Cornucopia?"

"These" he lifted up two suits. They were both silver, like chain mail, but seemed light. "They're armor."

"No way" he nodded. "We're definitely going to win. What else did I miss?"

"Well, I've been waiting to make sure you're awake so that I can go kill Thresh, but now that you're awake, I'm gonna get going" he started to pick up things from the tent.

"No. Don't go"

"I have to, Clove. He can't get away with what he did. He can't get away with hurting you."

"Then let me come" he dropped all his things.

"No fucking way Clove. You can't even stand up yet!"

"Just let me come" I pleaded. "To watch. Please. It's my dying wish." his eyes softened a bit and he knelt down next to me again.

"You're not dying, Clove. I won't let it happen." he stroked my head slowly and I just stared at him with pleading eyes. "Fine. I'll carry you there. I think he's hiding down in the tall grasses by the lake. I'll carry you down and hide you somewhere." I nodded. He continued to pack his supplies, and as he was finishing, it was getting dark. "Okay, now that it's dark, we can go" He scooped me up after I had another pill.

He carried me down to the lake side and placed me on a low branch of a tree. Sure, it was low enough for him to reach, but it was high enough that it would be a nasty fall. "Now, listen to me. Don't make a fucking noise. No matter what happens. And stay in this tree" he looked over the grasses warily. "It's the safest place right now. And if I don't make it out, take these, jump down from the tree and run. Maybe you'll have enough strength to run" he handed me the whole bottle of pills.

"You're going to make it. I'm sure" I leaned down and kissed him, and for the first time I saw fear in his eyes.

"Bye"

"Bye" I kissed him one last time and he headed off into the grasses. He held out his sword and stepped through the grasses carefully. He reached the middle of the grass and looked around. And, just like in a dramatic movie, it began to rain. There was a flash of lightning and a clap of thunder and I clutched the tree, only hoping the Gamemakers would spare me. Cato looked up at the sky as if saying to the Gamemakers, Really?

Then Thresh sprung up from the grass, kicking Cato's feet out from under him. In his hand, Thresh held a curved knife. So that's what he got from the feast. A real weapon. He kicked Cato and it took all of my being not to squeal. Cato jumped up finally and sliced Thresh's arm. Thresh clutched it, but then lunged at Cato.

And, just my luck, lightning flashed and hit the branch I was sitting on. I clawed at the trunk of the tree as the branch fell. When I caught a foot hold on the tree, I saw Cato looking at the tree worriedly, while trying to fight Thresh at the same time. I gave him a thumbs up, but as I was giving him the thumbs up, I lost balance and fell, scraping my front side along the tree as I fell.

When I made it to the bottom, I knew Thresh had heard me. He'd still be mad about Rue, so I popped three pills and gained enough strength to run to the lake. But, as I was running, I heard Thresh's heavy footsteps behind me. I reached the lake and, my weak limbs tripped and Landed in the mud. I rolled over and saw Thresh raising his knife. This was more of what I thought death was going to be like. Me being killed at the hands of District 11, by the lake that my mother had died in. I closed my eyes tight and heard an almighty crash. When I opened my eyes, Cato stood over me, and Thresh's body was face down in the mud next to me. The canon boomed.

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** s/8721443/1/Only-The-Lonely**

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	23. Shattered Skulls, Crushed Hearts

**So I know you guys dont ever read my quthors note so I'm going to throw a random authros note in the middlke fo the story so you might read it!**

****Chapter 23

Shattered Skulls, Crushed Hearts

"What now?" I finally got up the strength to say something. By then, Cato had carried me back to our camp through the rain. With the thunderstorm raging, we were forced to stay in the tent.

"We wait. The only ones left are the two from 12, and the girl from District 5."

"We're not even going to try to kill them?"

"I'm not going to risk losing you again" he coughed, trying to hide the fact that his voice was quivering.

"I'm fine Cato, really. I promise" I lifted his chin up so that he was forced to look me in the eye. "Just get us home" he nodded, and I very well knew that if he said something, he'd start crying again. I guess that's one of the things about that arena. It can psychologically ruin anyone- even the strongest of people. He handed me more water and food. "I've eaten almost half of our supplies Cato, you need to eat something" he just looked off into the distance.

"Cato, don't shut me out. Please."

"Just give me a minute" he stepped out into the rain.

"Cato, you're gonna freeze!" I called after him. I knew he didn't want me to see him cry again, so I was left alone in the tent. To contemplate how I was ever going to get the old Cato back. I laid back and shut my eyes slowly, hoping that sleep would help me clear my mind. Instead, I heard the hollow thud of a canon. "Catooooo!" I screamed, almost falling off the cot again. The rain stopped, and so did my heart.

"Clove, I'm fine" he called. "Come out here" I crawled to the opening of the tent and poked my head out, noticing it was getting dark.

"Why the hell is it so dark. It's like noon"

"It's the finale." he said in a sobering tone. "Take all of those pills Clove. No telling what the Capitol's got in store for us now. You're going to need all the strength you can" I slid back into the tent and picked up the bottle. This couldn't be healthy. Chances are, i would die of overdose rather than survive when Cato and I won, but I followed his orders and swallowed the bottle. My whole body buzzed with strength.

We both put on our armor suits and then walked back out of the tent. "What are they waiting for?" Cato mumbled. No- Cato didn't mumble. Something else mumbled. There it was again; a sharp growl.

"They're not waiting anymore Cato" I said, and at the same time, a big shape lunged itself at Cato. I don't know what startled me more; the fact that a dog had just jumped on my boyfriend, or the fact that my boyfriend wasn't fighting back. He just say there and looked in the mutation's eyes while the mutation continued to claw at his face. "Cato!" I screamed. I rushed forward, completely unarmed, and kicked the mutation off of him. Cato just laid there, stunned. For a heart wrenching moment, I thought he was dead.

I picked up the closest weapon I could find; Cato's sword. I thrashed it around towards the mutation, which seemed un-phased. That's when I noticed what Cato had been looking at; the eyes. The mutation had those big black eyes of Thresh. More mutations came crashing through the woods. "Cato god dammit, I need some fucking help!" I screamed. He finally stood up and dashed to the pile of supplies that sponsors had sent us. "This isn't time for more fucking food, they're not hungry for bread!" I screamed.

"No" he walked forward, next to me. "It's the gas bomb" he threw it into the pack of mutations. "Run!" he screamed, lifting his shirt over his mouth as the green gas spewed from the silver ball. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, which was pretty damn fast, but not fast enough to match Cato's long strides. Not to mention the fact that the horrible sound of the mutations' low growling kept following me.

I came crashing through the woods and into the open field. I finally saw where Cato was headed. He was already on top of the Cornucopia. "Clove, run! Come on!" He screamed. I hit the Cornucopia with such force that my teeth vibrated, but Cato hoisted me up. Not before one of the mutations could bite off my shoe, though. I sat long enough to catch my breath and noticed the two from District 12 were running towards the Cornucopia as well.

"Get ready" Cato said in a low voice.

"I left my knives at the camp! I only have one!" I said pitifully.

"CLove! What the hell, you're not seven! You need to remember these things; especially when they're what's going to help us get home!" He screamed at me with such intensity that I almost cried, but I had to focus on the next threat I would face.

The two from District 12 started to scale the side of the Cornucopia, and as Fire girl was coming up, I tried to kick her back down. Instead, she grabbed hold of my foot and threw me back down to the ground. I hit the ground with a thud, and quickly got up. The mutations clawed and bit at my legs, but I couldn't feel anything. I climbed back up the cornucopia, my blood smearing against the gold of the metal. When I finally reached safety, I saw that we were in quite a predicament Fire girl grabbed me and hooked an arm around my neck, yielding a knife.

On the other side was Cato, his arm around Lover boy's neck. Fuck. "Go ahead, do it" Cato said to Fire girl. What!? "In the end it will just be you and me. Always was going to be, wasn't it? The two most powerful tributes in the arena? You want the honor of fighting the boy from district two? Then kill her." Cato's words hit my heart like a million knives. Katniss just smiled and pressed the blade into my neck.

**RANDOM AUTHORS NOTE: go to s/8721443/1/Only-The-Lonely**

"No, no no!" I pleaded, clawing at her hands. I reached my knife and sliced her arm. "Bitch" she gasped and dropped me onto the Cornucopia. The good news was that she had only cut my neck a little bit. Sure, it was a deep enough cut to make me go in and out on consciousness, but it wouldn't kill me. Not if the games weren't over soon. The bad news was that she had thrown me onto the Cornucopia pretty hard. Right on the spot where Thresh had hit me with a rock, too. I could feel the skull slowly shattering and the blood seeping.

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	24. Secrets

**Happy Turkey Day! I had a horrible one because I was sick :( but here's the next chapter**

Chapter 24

Secrets 

My whole body ached. The first thing I noticed when I woke up was the bright overhead light that bore into my skull. The intensity of the light made my eyes hurt. The next thing I noticed was that there was an IV in my arm. "Hello?" I croaked, hoping someone would hear me. No one came.  
I peeled back the tape from the IV and pulled the needle out and tried to sit up. My stomach churned and my heart thudded in my head, but at least I was able to sit up. That was a good start. I noticed that I was wearing a thin white night gown, something of the Capitol's obviously, due to the fact that the fabric was nice. The biggest relief of waking up in that room was that I was alive; I had made it out of the arena. I rested my head in my palms, letting out a couple happy tears.  
"Good, you're up" Enobaria came through the door. She looked angry, but when she saw me, her eyes softened a bit. She sat next to me on the bed. "I just went to visit Cato" I took my head away from my hands.  
"He's alive?"  
"Yeah" she frowned. "He's just fine."  
"How long has it been?" I asked.  
"A week. He's been out of the hospital since Wednesday, but you were in much worse condition. They weren't sure you were going to make it, which is saying something considering" she motioned around the room, "we'll, considering this is the Capitol"  
"What happened after I passed out?" I rubbed my forehead, trying to remember. She looked at me pitifully.  
"You'll know when we have your interview with Caesar." I nodded.  
"Where's Cato? Can I see him?"  
"Sure." She stood up. "I better go tell them you're alive so we can schedual the interview." I nodded and she left the room. A could minutes later, Cato poked his head into the room.  
"Clove" he gasped.  
"What?" I asked defensively.  
"You, uh. You look different" he stepped into the room fully. I understood what he probably meant; Cato was at least fifty pounds skinnier, he's cheek bones were caved in and his hair was long and shaggy. Had he always looked like that?  
"You look a bit different yourself"  
"Um" he shoved his hands in his pockets, "thank you?"  
"You're welcome" I patted the spot on the bed next to me, to which he walked over cautiously and sat down.  
"Do you remember anything?"  
"Uh" I rubbed my forehead, trying to recall what had happened. "I remember- I remember when you told Katniss to kill me" I looked down at my hands and chuckled. "You've got a lot of nerve doing something like that, you know"  
"I- I know. But if I hadn't said anything, we would have stood there like idiots, waiting for someone to make a move. And- well, that doesn't make for very good television." Seeing as how I was in the hospital and chances were Cato would hit a cripple, I took this as an excuse to slap him.  
"You're worried about making good television?! How the hell do you figure that telling someone to kill your girlfriend makes good television!?" I raised my voice, and I could hear the beeping of the machines heighten. I noticed I had a gray clip over my finger that connected to the beeping machine.  
"So that's all you remember?"  
"What the fuck Cato!?" I slapped him again. "You're worried about what I remember?!" The machine beeped faster.  
"We'll it's just that-"  
"Leave!" I pointed to the door.  
"Clove-"  
"Leave! Now!" He nodded and sauntered out of the room.

* * *

"What about the red one?" Take, Flo's daughter, help up the full length red dress thoughtfully. I just shrugged in reply.

"Clove, you've got to help us out here" Flo sighed, flipping through the dresses again.

"I'll wear whatever you pick out. I never agreed to helping you pick what I wear. Isn't that your job?" I said in a mocking tone.  
"Fine." Flo breathed.  
"The red one it is" Take helped me put on the dress. It was a long plain red dress with spaghetti straps. There was a slit along the side that traveled all the way to my hip. My makeup was done in contrast to the dress; brown eye makeup and red lipstick. Flo pinned my hair into a messy bun, being quite all the while. When she finished, she gave me a sobering look.  
"What?"  
"Good luck" she forced a smile. There was something that people were obviously not telling me. She steered me to the stage and the interview began. Cato and I sat in opposite chairs. Cato wore something completely different from my smoldering red couture. He wore an icy blue suit that matched his eyes, and no matter how furious I was with him, I still thought he looked handsome.  
The interview began with a rerun of the games, displaying the highlights. Then, they showed the full last thirty minutes of the show; the finale. They showed the mutations jumping on Cato, us climbing onto the Cornucopia. Then they showed Katniss with me and Cato with Peeta.  
"Go ahead, do it" I heard Cato's menacing words. "In the end it will just be you and me. Always was going to be, wasn't it? The two most powerful tributes in the arena? You want the honor of fighting the boy from district two? Then kill her." The words still made my blood boil. Then Katniss pressed her infidels to my neck and I could almost remember the pain. I was practically gasping for breath just watching the show.  
Katniss dropped me onto the Cornucopia and I slumped over, appearing dead. Then, Cato snapped Peeta's neck, to which Katniss seemed un-phased. They walked towards each other, sizing each other up. Cato made the first move, lunging at her with his sword. She shot and arrow into his bicep, but he carelessly pulled it out. "You're gonna have to do better than that 12"  
As I was sitting, watching the part of the finale I didn't remember, I felt Cato's foot hit mine. He was checking if I was alright. I just ignored his foot by not moving mine an inch.  
Cato lunged at Katniss again, slicing her stomach. She doubled over in pain, but Cato kicked her off of the cornucopia and ingot he pack of mutations.  
"Dear tributes, the past rule change has been revoked. There may be only one standing victor" Claudius Templesmith said. Cato looked awfully confused, but then looked towards my slumped body. He knelt next to me and took my wrist, checking for a pulse. When he found on, he muttered under his breath.  
"Shit" he stood back and contemplated what to do. He leaned in close to me, kissed my forehead, and raised his sword to my neck. "I'm sorry Clove." He muttered heartlessly. "But I've got to get home"  
"Stop! Stop!" Claudius Templesmith screamed, mirroring my thoughts. "I present to you the two victors of the 74th annual hunger games!" He said frantically. Cato looked towards the camera, realizing what he had just done.  
I still felt Cato's foot pressed against mine, waiting for a reaction. Instead of knocking his foot in reply, I raised my stiletto heel above his foot, and bringing it down, hearing a satisfying crunch.  
So that's what I wasn't supposed to see.

**so this fan fix is slowly coming to an end, but have no fear! I will write a sequal. And no worries, this isn't the last chapter of this one, but when I make he sequal, I'll be sure to tell you how to find it! Thanks for all the lovely support and don't forget,**

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	25. Bricks

**Alright well sorry I haven't posted, I have has a horrible break. I got sick and got lice. Fml. But here's le next chapter**

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Chapter 25

Bricks

"So Clove, what do you plan on doing when you get back to District two?" Caesar, obviously sensing my discomfort, tried to change the subject.  
"Uh, I think I need a moment" considering it wasn't a live show, I decided just to storm of the stage. I even left behind my heels, knowing they would prevent me from running off so angrily.  
I couldn't believe what Cato had done. He was about to kill me?! After everything we had been together! He told me he loved me! I mean, imagine someone who told you they loved you and then killing you! Who the fuck does that?  
I was like a tornado; stomping through backstage, knocking over any thing and anyone in my way. I found myself sitting on my bed, crying my eyes out. I took out my hair and tore my dress so it was shorter and easier to sit in. When I heard the door creaking open, I shoved my face in a pillow so no one would see me crying. "Go away"  
I heard footsteps inch closer to my bed. "Go away, please" I felt the person sit down on my bed. It was definitely only one person, but the person was lighter than Cato. I finally looked up and saw the last person I was expecting to see.  
"Hey" Sam Cavalry smiled, rubbing my back comfortingly like I had when she had visited me before the games. It seemed like a lifetime ago.  
"Sam? What are you doing here?" I straightened up.  
"What? Not excited to see me?" She asked with a smirk.  
"No, I- I mean I am" I rubbed a tear from my eye, "but why?"  
"We'll since your dad is dead, he couldn't come visit you. They wanted your closest relative to come stay with you in the Capitol while they're finishing up the victor's process. But since your cousins family, on your moms side, couldn't come up from district four since its prime fishing season, they asked for your closest friend. So I decided to come" she shrugged. I guess that's why our friendship was always a little awkward. We never really got to know each other better before we considered ourselves friends, but it was nice to have someone close to me. A girl close to me.  
"I'm glad you came"  
"I'm glad I came too" she picked up the expensive looking clock off the bedside table. "They've got it nice here in the Capitol, don't they?"  
"Yeah, just a bit. You wait until you have a proper Capitol dinner, then you'll be amazed." I laughed, to which she smiled in reply.  
"It's good to see you happy."  
"Well," I took a shaky breath, "considering my boyfriend tried to kill me and my reaction to that was just filmed for national television, I'm just peachy" I said sarcastically.  
"Clove!" Herb, the escort, came running through the door. "Clove Eddings where the-" she spotted Sam. "Who are you?"  
"Buzz of Herb, I'll be down in a sec" Herb, her ego obviously bruised, fixed her wig and trotted off.  
"You better get back to your interview."  
"Yeah" I frowned. "You can meet Enobaria and talk to her while I finish my interview!" Ad like a kid in a candy store, I lead off Sam back to the interview. When I got there, I spotted Enobaria leaning against the wall, tossing a coin in her hand. "Enobaria, meet Sam. Sam, Enobaria. Now you two kids have fun, got to go." I smiled to Enobaria, who looked at me murderously.  
I smoothed my hair and returned to my seat, noticing that now Cato's foot had been patched up while I was gone.  
"Clove, nice to have you back" seeing as the cameras were off, I was allowed to be rude.  
"Yeah yeah, let's just make this fast." I waved my hand dismissively. The cameras started again.  
"So, Clove, what's next for you."  
"We'll, Caesar, I'm gonna go home, settle into my victors house, find a new boyfriend, and start to rebuild my life, brick by brick."

**GO LOOK UP THE SEQUAL AND PUT IT IN YOUR ALERT! CHAPTER ONE IS UP! IT'S CALLED ANOTHER WORLD FOR FLAWLESS**


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